‘Use your head, use your helmet’ say safety campaigners

A sheep farmer who was seriously injured after he was catapulted from a quad bike on his Scottish hill farm is urging every rider to wear a safety helmet as a new awareness campaign launches today (18 December).

Just over a year after Callum Lindsay’s accident on the Isle of Arran, he is sharing his story as part of the Royal Scottish Agricultural Benevolent Institution’s (RSABI) new safety initiative, which it is running with the Farm Safety Foundation, also known as Yellow Wellies.

See also: HSE explores whether new roll bars can reduce quad deaths

Callum was moving sheep when his quad bike hit a stone concealed by bracken, throwing him to the ground after his face had hit the front rack; he was not wearing a helmet.

He was unconscious for up to 40 minutes with neck and back injuries, and serious head trauma.

After he came round, he reached an area with mobile phone signal and alerted his wife, Zara.

Callum was airlifted to hospital and remembers that journey well.

“My head felt like it was going to explode, but my biggest worry was ‘how is the work going to get done? Who is going to do it? Will I still be able to farm?’” he recalled.

It was not a quick recovery – he wore a neck brace for six months and experienced extreme tiredness from the bruising to his brain.

Tribute

Callum, who paid tribute to Zara for keeping the farm going while he recovered, always wears a safety helmet when he now uses a quad bike.

“It’s a lifeline tool and I don’t think about putting it on now, it is just part of my daily routine. It’s something everybody should be doing,” he said.

Callum features in a video in the new RSABI campaign, which will run over the next six months and encourages people to always wear helmets on quads.

The charity has seen first-hand the impact of accidents on individuals and their families, and farm businesses.

Think safety 

RSABI chief executive Carol McLaren hopes that, by keeping the campaign running until July, it should prompt farmers to think about safety and to consider the terrain, weather and other risk factors.

“By working with helmet safety ambassadors and influencers in the farming community, we hope to start the ball rolling on a change similar to what has happened on the ski slopes over the past decade, where people have switched to wearing helmets as the norm,” she said.

Over the past 60 years, the main causes of fatalities and serious injuries on farms have not changed, but the use of quad bikes and all-terrain vehicles (ATV) presents a new danger.

Farm Safety Foundation manager Stephanie Berkeley stresses that it’s not the quad bike in itself that is dangerous, but the way it’s handled.

“Many ATV deaths have been caused by head injuries, and helmets would almost certainly have prevented most of these deaths,” she said.