It would be funny if it wasn’t so painful…
Thursday, March 15th, 2007“It would be funny if it wasn’t so painful,” said Tania Foster, 45, a farmer who damaged her Achilles tendon when she stumbled down an open drain at a Health and Safety Executive (HSE) event on Agricultural Safety near Chester.
Officials at the HSE said a risk assessment on the offending hole had been carried out before the event but it was not deemed a serious risk.
New Defence 1: “The HSE policy is about serious risk management not risk elimination as you can never get an entirely risk-free workplace,” a spokesman for the agency said.
“The hole had been seen but it was up against a wall and therefore thought unlikely to be a risk.
New Defence 2: “Unfortunately we have been caught out by circumstance, but it emphasises the need to be vigilant at all times,” the spokesman added.
Foster, a mother-of-two, said that was all well and good but added: “I think they should listen to their own advice.
“As my husband Gary says, they wouldn’t have found any open drains on our farm.”
Remember verbatim these new defences in the event that you find yourself across the table from the HSE with a tape recorder in the middle!