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The personal injury solicitor's office I work in is situated in a rural area on the outskirts of a West Sussex cathedral city. It's a lovely peaceful place; affording verdant views of the South Downs that provide a strangely conducive atmosphere for writing about work injury and car accidents. Directly below our office window is a field and yesterday the farmer ploughed and sowed it.
Taking a welcome break from poring over road crash death statistics, I watched as the white-haired farmer toiled up and back in his tractor, making almost perfectly straight furrows in the earth. He skilfully manoeuvred the unwieldy vehicle around the odd shaped field until virtually every inch of soil was ploughed and sown.
I was fascinated. I stood, pressed against the cool glass and watched as he performed the same actions repeatedly. He would twist round in his seat and as the tractor went forward he watched the plough, ensuring it stayed on line, so that not an inch of precious land was left unturned. He did it effortlessly, with an enormous amount of skill and as I marvelled, it made me smile to think that he probably has no idea what it is like to sit in front of a VDU five days a week for eight hours a day. If he spied upon me, as I wrote about industrial illness and train crashes, would he smile to himself, admiring the skill with which I effortlessly type in a straight line, or my amazing ability to remember how my six colleagues in the office take their teas and coffees, every time I venture towards the kettle?
No, possibly not. And would I swap with the farmer for a life in the open air; nurturing land and beast to produce sustenance for the masses; a romantic life of tilling the soil and bringing fluffy white lambs to their first faltering breaths?
Well, like any self-respecting personal injury copy writer I did my research before answering the enquiry. And unfortunately Health and Safety Executive (HSE) statistics on fatalities in agricultural industries make for pretty grim reading.
According to the most recent HSE 'Fatal Injuries in farming, forestry and horticulture' report there were 43 UK fatalities due to farming related work accidents in 2006/2007. Tragically, four of those deaths were children.
Causes of death in farming and related industries, 2006/2007:
It sounds pretty dangerous. So, much as I admire the check-shirted farmer and think that a life spent watching the seasons change and working to a diary set by sun and rain sounds honourable, I feel safe in my office, with its electrical supply, servers and reliable internet connection.
My greatest risk in the office would probably come from those damned nasty paper cuts and I occasionally run over my own toes with my computer chair; neither of which really constitutes great work injury risk. So, as the sun sets on another day in the office and the farmer puts his tractor to bed, I think to myself, "Plough on Mr. Farmer, and I thank you."