BBC News or Agriculture and Environment correspondent
BBCA Tyrone County man has said that his dream of taking care of the family farm had gone in the “blinking of an eye” when he lost his arm in an agricultural accident.
William Sayers was 12 when his life changed forever.
Determined to finish that the suspension extended on the family’s Donemana farm, he was checking how the tank was filling when his unbuttoned coat was caught in rapid movement machinery.
Agriculture remains one of the most dangerous sectors in Northern Ireland, with approximately half or all deaths in the workplace in a farm in 2023/24.
Sayers said that to the seconds that his coat was caught, his right arm had gone and his clothes had been stripped of him.
“A minute you have an arm, and the next minute you have none,” he told BBC News or.
“I stand up and I remember looking down, and there were only socks and underwear.
“Then I looked around to run and I could my arm lying on the floor, and I knew it was my arm.”
How dangerous is the agricultural sector of Northern Ireland?
Thirty -five years later, Hey offers himself as an ambassador to the Agricultural Security Foundation, counting his history to try to save other accidents avoidable power.
The majority of the 26,000 farms in Northern Ireland are small family businesses with one or two people who work in them.
That can increase the risk, according to the Agricultural Security Foundation.
“If you compare agriculture with something like the construction industry: people go home at the end of the day, they have a site manager,” said Stephanie Berkeley, who manages the foundation.
“Farmers do not walk their farm every day and take 20 seconds to look around and think:” What could go wrong today and what can I do safe? “
“They simply continue because there are so many things they have to do.”
The continuous need to improve the security history of agriculture, and the mental well -being of farmers, is the theme of the second National Conference of the Agricultural Security Association (FSP), which is held in Belfast this month.
Mr. Sayers said that on the night of his accident he remembers three other people taken to the hospital due to incidents.
Hello, you also clearly remember the effect on your family.
“I could see my sister looking out the window, and she told my father inside the house that had passed with one arm,” he explained.
“I could see my mother and another friend stopped in her hand on her mouth and that expression:” What happened? Will I see it again?
The loss of his arm ended with the expectation of his and his family that would be the fifth generation to take care of the earth.
His father also lost a limb in an agricultural accident as a child, when he lost a leg at the age of two.
Looking towards the future, Sayers said that a new cattle squeak had been built on the farm in 1986, one year before the accident.
“My father had this place ready for me,” he added.
“He would go out and I would enter, I tried again to grow after the hospital time and with one arm, it is simply not possible.
“Therefore, his plans were also filed, which I felt a lot.”
Mr. Sayers now works full time in sales of agricultural machinery, but remembers how the accident affected it.
“I still remember applauding approximately a week before at school, I would never applaud again. I would never write again with my right hand, and I was right,” he said.
“I had to learn to make my ties and my shoes. How would a shirt board? How would a coat do?
“I could deal with that very well mentally, but that is not always the case.
“I was one of the lucky ones.”
