A BLACKBURN farmer is backing a national campaign to improve agricultural safety after badly injuring his hand.

David Coar, 44, who runs Yew Tree Farm, in Broken Stone Lane, Livesey, cut his left hand after catching it on tractor equipment while forking silage.

Now he is urging famers to think more about health and safety and join up to the Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE’s) Make the Promise campaign.

The idea is that small green bows of rope issued by the HSE are placed around farms in areas where dangerous accidents could occur.

One in five work-related deaths is in agriculture, despite only 1.5 per cent of the population working in the industry. During the past five years, two people were killed and another 132 seriously injured in farming accidents in Lancashire.

Mr Coar, who lives on the 125-acre beef and sheep farm with wife Laura, 40, and daughter Gemma, 19, said: “It’s definately a good idea as farmers work long hours, so it’s important they’re remin-ded how vital their safety is.

“I was lucky that my injury wasn’t worse. I was in a rush on Christmas Eve forking bales of silage from the teeth of a tool and cut my finger badly. If I’d have caught my wrist or a main artery, then it would have been a completely different story.

“It takes me a bit longer to feed the sheep now as I use a bucket on the front of the tractor to lift the bales, but it’s definately worth spending a few extra minutes to make sure I can feed them safely.”

Wife Laura said: “Anything that makes farmers think twice has got to be welcomed.

“David was very lucky. If he had have been more badly injured and couldn’t work for a long period of time, the impact on the farm and the family would have been very serious.”

More than 1,100 farmers in the region have already signed up to the Make the Promise campaign, and more are being encouraged to do the same.