Three years ago, farmer Ian Barwick died in a tractor accident on his property in Northern Tasmania. It was the same tractor that killed his father in an accident decades earlier. Now the coroner investigating Ian Barwick's death has recommended tractors more than 40 years old be banned from commercial farms
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00:00 When Felicity Richards is out on her property, safety is always front of mind.
00:07 Tractors are big machines with a lot of inherent risk that needs to be addressed.
00:12 She's familiar with the hazards that come with the job.
00:16 It only takes seconds, fractions of a second, and that can be because you are distracted, tired, thinking about something else, you miss your footing, there's just so many ways.
00:28 An investigation into the death of a Tasmanian farmer in 2020 has put further scrutiny on safety around tractors.
00:36 A Tasmanian coroner now recommends that tractors manufactured before 1982 be prohibited from commercial use.
00:43 In her findings, Coroner Olivia McTaggart said this was the fifth tractor death in Tasmania since 2017.
00:51 Nationally, she said between 2012 and 2022, the toll sits at 131 people, an average of 12 tractor-related deaths per year.
01:02 Felicity says safety is key, but that she's not sure yet where she stands on a ban.
01:08 I want to understand more where these are still being used and what the ramifications would be for farmers if they were banned.
01:15 But I'm very much supportive of all measures and reminders to farmers to maintain their equipment, no matter how old it is.
01:23 All machinery accidents don't happen just because of the machinery.
01:28 Sometimes there's pilot error. It may well be fatigue, it may well be that they haven't had appropriate training for that implement.
01:36 All are in agreement that safety is paramount.
01:40 We want to see no accidents, no farm accidents in Tasmania, let alone any deaths.
01:47 Go out there, get it serviced, keep it maintained and make sure you're absolutely optimising your use of it in a safe way.
01:54 [BLANK_AUDIO]