Local PhD student creates app to prevent farm accidents

A native of County Derry currently undertaking a PhD at the Atlantic Technological University (ATU) has created an app which aims to cut down accidents on farm grounds. 

Carolyn Scott grew up on a sheep farm near Limavady and she witnessed firsthand the impact farm accidents can have on people.

In the 1970s, her grandfather sustained serious injuries while spraying a chemical substance on a farm. 

“My grandfather was in a farm accident before I was born. That was kind of the inspiration there before doing anything farm safety.”

When spraying a chemical substance, ‘the sprayer tank exploded’, explains Carolyn. 

Due to chemical poisoning, her grandfather spent several months in hospital and the accident left him with health repercussions his whole life. 

Carolyn explained that her app will be used to give advice and hopefully cut down on accidents on the farm. 

“As part of my PhD, I met with farmers a lot. So I was hearing about all the issues they were having, all the different causes of farm accidents and I really wanted to do something like that,” she said.

At the moment, Carolyn is working with three focus groups and experts to fully create her app.

However, after actively working on the app for six months, she already knows what it will include.

“So my idea is that every cause or form of accident that I've identified as part of my PhD will be in a video or an interview or sort of information about [it]. So farmers can get that information really easily whenever they need it.

“The app will be voice activated so farmers can speak to their phone, probably in their pocket. They'll get notifications during the slurry season. A reminder will come through and I will say maybe check everything's working.”

The idea behind the app is to bring directly the information to the farmer instead of them having to search online. 

For example, Carolyn explains that if farmers are looking at what age someone can drive a tractor, this information will be directly available in the app.

“Farmers are just not really up there in the 21st century and in a lot of ways we ask them for everything. I just thought that that was a good thing to do,” she said.

Following Carolyn’s data studies on accidents on farms and the latest figures from the Health and Safety Executive NI (HSENI), there have been 53 people killed on farms between January 2013 and December 2022 in Northern Ireland. 

She deplores the under-reporting of accidents on farm work as some accidents that are not fatal are often not reported to the authorities. 

“Some of [the accidents] could be really severe, life-changing, but people are often scared to report these accidents in case you know, inspectors slammed the door or if your arms are hanging off, farmers say ‘we'll just manage, we'll just get by’.”

After speaking with farmers about the app, Carolyn said the feedback is really positive and she has received a lot of ideas from them as well.

“I think farmers are looking forward to a good source of information that they can trust,” Carolyn said.

She aims for the app to be available at the end of 2024. 

Carolyn's research was made possible thanks to funding by ATU Sligo.