Tyrone farmer urges caution after losing arm in accident

William Sayers’ dream as a child was to take over the family farm, but it disappeared in the “blink of an eye” when he lost his arm in a farming accident.

He was 12 when his life changed forever.

Determined to finish slurry-spreading on the family’s farm in Donemana, County Tyrone, he was checking how the tank was filling when his unzipped coat was caught in fast-moving machinery.

Agriculture remains one of the most dangerous sectors in Northern Ireland, with about half of all workplace deaths happening on a farm in 2023/24.

Mr Sayers said within seconds of his coat becoming trapped, his right arm was gone and his clothing had been stripped off him.

“One minute you have an arm, and the next minute you have none,” he told BBC News NI.

“I got up on my feet, and I remember looking down, and there was only socks and underwear on.

“Then I looked round to run and could see my arm lying on the ground, and I knew it was my arm.”

Thirty-five years later, he volunteers as an ambassador for the Farm Safety Foundation, telling his story to try to save others from potentially avoidable accidents.

The majority of the 26,000 farms in Northern Ireland are small, family-run businesses with one or two people working on them.

That can heighten the risk, according to the Farm Safety Foundation.

“If you compare farming to something like the construction industry – people go home at the end of the day, they have a site manager,” said Stephanie Berkeley, who manages the foundation.

“Farmers do not walk on to their farm every day and take 20 seconds to look around and think: ‘What could go wrong today and what can I make safe?’

“They just get on with it because there are so many things that they have to do.”

The continuing need to improve agriculture’s safety record, and the mental wellbeing of farmers, is the theme of the Farm Safety Partnership (FSP)’s second national conference, which is being held in Belfast this month.

Mr Sayers said that on the night of his accident he remembers three other people being brought into hospital due to incidents.

He also clearly remembers the effect on his family.

“I could see my sister looking out the window, and she told my father inside the house that I’d walked past with one arm,” he explained.

“I could see my mother and another friend standing at the door with that hand over their mouth and that expression: ‘What has happened? Will I see him again? Does he know I still love him? I can’t even give him a kiss goodbye.'”

The loss of his arm ended his and his family’s expectation that he would be the fifth generation to take over the land.

His father also lost a limb in a farm accident as a child, when he lost a leg at the age of two.

Looking to the future, Mr Sayers said a new cattle shed had been built on the farm in 1986, a year before the accident.

“My father had this place all set up for me,” he added.

“He would step out and I would step in, I came back to try to farm after the hospital time and with one arm, it’s just not possible.

“So therefore his plans were shelved as well, which I felt really sorry about.”

Mr Sayers now works full-time in agricultural machinery sales, but he remembers how the accident affected him.

“I still remember clapping about a week before at school – I would never clap again. I would never write with my right hand again, and I was right-handed,” he said.

“I had to learn to do my ties and my shoes. How would I button a shirt? How would I zip a coat?

“I was able to cope with it very well mentally, but that’s not always the case.

“I was one of the fortunate ones.”