Investigating slips, trips and falls in the New Zealand dairy farming sector

• Published in: Ergonomics Vol. 48; no. 8; pp. 1008 - 1019
• Main Authors: Bentley, Tim, Tappin, David, Moore, Dave, Legg, Stephen, Ashby, Liz, Parker, Richard
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Taylor & Francis 22-06-2005; Washington, DC Taylor & Francis LLC
• Subjects: Accidental Falls - statistics & numerical data; Accidents, Occupational - statistics & numerical data; Adolescent; Adult; Applied physiology; Biological and medical sciences; Dairy farming; Dairy industry; Dairying; Ergonomics; Ergonomics. Work place. Occupational physiology; Falls; Female; Human physiology applied to population studies and life conditions. Human ecophysiology; Humans; Injury investigations; Male; Manual workers; Medical sciences; Middle Aged; New Zealand - epidemiology; Occupational injury; Risk Assessment; Risk Factors; Slips; trips and falls; Working conditions; Workplace - statistics & numerical data; New Zealand; Oceania; Human; Occupational accident; trips and falls; Injury investigations; Dairy farming; Ergonomics; Occupational injury; Slips; Risk factor; Slip; Fall; Farmer; Occupational exposure; Farming
• ISSN: 0014-0139; 1366-5847
• DOI: 10.1080/00140130500182072

The paper presents findings from 39 detailed follow-up investigations of slips, trips and falls (STF) incurred by individuals working in New Zealand's dairy farming industry. The study sought to identify the key contributory risk factors for STF in this sector to provide evidence to support intervention design, and to determine the effectiveness of the investigative methodology used to achieve these objectives. Findings from the follow-up investigations included an analysis of factors related to the underfoot surface, underfoot hazard and footwear. Of note here was the propensity for STF-involved workers to not see or identify an underfoot hazard due to concurrent visual task distractions, and for workers to use footwear that both lacked effective tread and was unsuitable for the task and underfoot surface. Key latent risk factors and their interactions identified included problems associated with time pressure and related time-saving behaviours and the presence of design errors that, for example, required workers to climb onto equipment to view aspects of the task they were working on. The paper concludes that the potential resource and logistical problems associated with conducting detailed STF investigations are outweighed by the opportunity to collect rich data on key risk factors and their interactions in STF research.