Farm Safety – How We See Risk

By Author: peter main
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When talking about safety on a farm, it is important to think of it in quite a clinical sense. This is because it is being looked at in an objective way, in order to understand what the risks are, who is most at risk, what are the consequences of the risk if it goes wrong and how it can best be managed.

A crucial element of this is how people perceive the nature of risk. Some people have a very black-and-white view of risk, that either everything in life is a risk and we shouldn't worry about it, or some people are so risk averse that they will hardly leave home in case something happens to them.

Those are two slightly extreme examples of perception of risk, but do highlight that people have different attitudes to risk. It is important to understand that people see risk in different ways in order to appreciate what they are willing to put up with, or how they are likely to manage it.

Risk is part of everyday life, as soon as we wake up in the morning, through till going to bed at night. Even through the night there is a risk of someone robbing a home, or the house catching fire etc.

Some risks are ...
... perceived as minor, some as major. In fact, in life everything is a risk, but most of the time we do not think about them as risks, or if we do we tend to react in very specific ways.

All this is really about human nature, and how we perceive risk, which is important to understand especially at a business level, as it determines how we can consciously evaluate and therefore minimise any potential damage from the risk itself.

When looking at the nature of risk, it is a good idea to be quite objective about it. This helps both understand it better, and understand people's reactions to it, which can vary quite considerably.

Risk begins with probability. What is the likelihood of something happening. It is important to be clear about this. What is the risk of someone's house burning down. Probably fairly minimal for most people, but the consequences if it did would be horrific.

On a farm, one of the most common potential accidents is that of a tractor or small garden mower overturning. These machines are often used on ground at is quite hilly or steep, and any accident occurring in this way has the potential to be fatal.

What this really means is that just because the probability of something happening can be quite low, it doesn't mean that the consequences should be minimised as well, or that because a risk has a low likelihood you can say there's little chance of it happening.

On the other hand, people may be scared of flying because they think there is a greater risk of being killed than by other sorts of travel. In fact, most studies seem to indicate that flying is probably one of the safest forms of possible there is, so why do people perceive it differently.

The other important thing to understand about risk, is that it is not always about accidents. If a tractor or other piece of machinery breaks down, can it be easily repaired or replaced. If not, vital hours or days may be lost when the tractor is needed most, leading to potential consequences in terms of crops and subsequent financial loss.

This raises an important issue about perception of risk, which often has little to do with its reality, but much more to do with how much control the person has over a particular situation.

People tend to view driving as been quite safe, in large part because when you are in a vehicle you pretty much have total control of what happens inside the car. This gives people the illusion of safety, when in fact there is a significant level of risk from outside the vehicle, either from other people or from the environment.

When driving, peoples attitudes to risk tend to be based on their own level of control, not on the reality of the total environment. This is an important distinction in practice, but also very much in terms of understanding perception of risk and being willing to look at it objectively, in its entirety.

Peter Main is a freelance writer who specializes in agriculture and related matters with all major manufacturers, such as farm machinery, tractors, utvs, lawn and garden tractors, and snowblowers. He also writes extensively about all areas of tractor finance, including credit scores, insurance and loan pay offs.