Farmers using quad-bikes must wear helmets and undergo safety training from today.
The new quad-bike law is one of the first of its kind in Europe.
It comes as the Heath and Safety Authority launches a campaign encouraging farmers to think about their health and wellbeing on the farm.
HSA Senior Inspector for farm safety, Pat Griffin says farmers are at increased risk of stress, mental health issues, and heart disease, commenting; “If you’ve got poor health, you generally have some sort of disability if you’ve got a muscular skeletal injury, you may have a back injury or a shoulder injury and operating machinery and looking after livestock with such injuries can be very, very difficult and can actually lead to further injury and accidents on the farm”.
He adds “They’ve a very, very poor health profile and the booklet that we issued to all farming families earlier in the year sets out a number of things they can do to improve their health and we’ve asked them in this time of the year when they do have a little time to think about other things that they would consider their health impacts.”
