'Making Safety Hi Vis' - LKL is to issue all LKL contractors with Hi Vis vests from March 2023

Posted on 20 Feb 2023
'Making Safety Hi Vis' - LKL is to issue all LKL contractors with Hi Vis vests from March 2023

LKL are issuing all LKL staff with a Hi Vis vest that they encourage staff to wear when moving around the farm yards and buildings particularly during low light levels.

Sadly again the HSE fatality statistics identified that being struck by a moving vehicle was the highest cause of Agricultural deaths in 2021/22.

The HSE require farms to risk assess transport and pedestrian risks around their workplaces which will include vehicle movements from tractors, tele-handlers and ATV's around the farm and also any third party contractors visiting the site, including milk tankers.

Make Yours a Safe Yard - NFU

Farmers High Visibility Clothing

High Visibility clothing with reflective strips can be an important part of safety equipment for staff and can help drivers in vehicle cabs spot people from a long way off, compared to a normal green boiler suit or jacket, and also more quickly in the dark or early morning and in inclement weather that affects visibility – enabling them to slow down and stop.

The use of High Visibility clothing has been widely used in other industries for many years as one method to help pedestrians become more visible in workplaces, but is only recently becoming more acceptable on farms.

Here at LKL we want to encourage all staff to wear one and treat them as part of their normal workwear for most jobs on farms.

We will be providing a choice of four sizes. You should be able to get one to fit over your outdoor clothing but ensure that you are able to do it up properly using the velcro and not let it flap around. (Recommended to size up 2 sizes).

Please note that there are few Dairy farm jobs where Hi Vis clothing particularly vests would not be suitable.

These include:-

  • Working in the parlour (where there are no vehicle movements),
  • When using some machinery where an incorrectly closed vest might get caught and
  • They should be removed when using an open flame or hot works such as calf disbudding. (They are not flame retardant)

The use of PPE such as Hi Vis should be just one preventative measure that you should consider as part of a Transport/pedestrian risk assessment.

There are lots of other things that you can do to try and separate vehicles and pedestrians as much as possible such as:-

  • Providing Cordoned off or marked Pedestrian routes and making sure staff use them
  • Ensuring Drivers stick to speed limits and marked routes
  • Use horns, beacons, lights and mirrors when driving vehicles and always ensuring they are working and clean
  • Fitting reversing cameras to vehicles
  • Providing Convex mirrors in locations to enable you to see further around blind bends
  • Avoiding key areas at milk collection times and managing contractors on site
  • Ensuring children have securely fenced gardens to play in
  • Ensuring you use Safe Stop approach when you move around a vehicle
  • Enforcing - No mobile phone use - in the vehicle cab

Your Regional Manager will be distributing these on site visits from beginning of March. We hope you will make full and appropriate use of your Hi Vis.