A second tractor accident in less than 48 hours has drawn attention to improving safety on farms.
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A woman in her 50s is now in a stable condition at the Royal Melbourne Hospital after she was trapped for hours under a tractor at Ross Creek on Sunday, while a man in his 70s was taken to hospital on Tuesday morning with leg injuries after an accident at Magpie.
WorkSafe confirmed it will make enquiries into Tuesday's incident.
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Farm workers are among the most likely to be injured or killed while on the job in Victoria - in the 12 months to February 2021, 10 of the state's 53 workplace fatalities occurred on farms.
Of these, three were from tractor-related incidents.
That's a concern for the Victorian Farmers' Federation senior farm safety advisor, John Darcy.
He said there needs to be a change in attitude from farmers and farm employees to prevent further accidents, especially around heavy machinery.
"Everyone's aware of the high fatality rate on quad bikes, but tractors are second in terms of national statistics," he said.
"We want to make sure we educate people and make sure they're aware of what's going on and what they need to know."
Instead of legislative changes and regulations, he said, behaviours need to be addressed to improve safety in all aspects of farming.
The state government committed funding to the Safer Farms program in late 2020, encouraging farmers to set up Farm Safety Plans.
Mr Darcy said part of his job will be offering free safety auditing and consulting, countering the "it won't happen to me" mindset.
"We'll go to farms, sit on kitchen tables, guide employers through what they need to know, and do farm safety walks," he said.
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"We've established a monthly newsletter, where we'll be highlighting key safety issues - tractors will be one of the big ones.
"Our job is to influence behaviours - it's to change farmers' way of thinking around this work."
For more information, visit the Federation's website.
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