Farmer dies after falling from quad bike in West Cork

Gardaí and Health and Safety Authority begin separate investigations into man’s death

Gardai and the Health and Safety Authority have begun separate investigations after a man in his 70s died in quad bike crash on a farm in Co Cork.

The farmer was discovered with serious injuries by a relative when he called to the farm at Coomanore in the Mealagh Valley about 8km from Bantry at arounabut d 10am on Wednesday.

It appeared the man had fallen from the quad bike while working in a field and it ended up on top of him.

HSE paramedics and Bantry Fire Brigade attended the scene after the alarm was raised.

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The man was pronounced dead at the scene and his body has since been removed to Cork University Hospital for a postmortem.

Gardaí , who say they are treating the man’s death as an accident, have begun an investigation into the circumstances, including whether the incident may have happened on Tuesday night.

HSA inspectors have travelled to the scene to begin their investigation into the death which is the third to happen on Cork farms in the past three months.

John Reynolds (74) suffered fatal head injuries when he was attacked and knocked over by a bull at his dairy farm at Ballyinaloughy in Ballinhassig between Cork and Bandon on May 9th.

Paddy Curtin (64) from Knockscovane in Meelin in North Cork was fatally injured when he was gored by a bull as he was feeding cattle on a property at Tullylease near Charleville in North Cork on April 2nd.

According to the Health and Safety Authority, farming remains the most dangerous occupation in Ireland, with some 18 people dying in accidents on Irish farms in 2019.

According to HSA figures, 214 people died in accidents on farms between 2010 and 2019, with incidents involving tractors and farm vehicles accounting for 30 per cent of deaths, with machinery and livestock each accounting for a further 18 per cent.

Barry Roche

Barry Roche

Barry Roche is Southern Correspondent of The Irish Times