An eight-year-old boy who fell from a tractor in Co. Antrim on Monday morning is now ‘stable‘ in hospital, a spokesperson for the Belfast Health Trust has said.
The boy fell off the tractor on Old Frosses Road near Cloughmills, in north Co. Antrim on Monday and was taken to hospital
The spokesperson said that he is now stable at the moment in the children’s intensive care unit at the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children.
A spokesperson for the Health Service Executive in Northern Ireland today (October 27) said that it has been made aware of an incident involving a tractor on a farm in the Co. Antrim area and it is investigating the circumstances.
North Antrim DUP MLA Mervyn Storey, who knows the family, expressed shock at the news.
“The news of this accident has stunned the local community in the Cloughmills area.
Many schools have just started their half-term holidays and this highlights the dangers that can exist around a working farm.
“My thoughts are with family at this time and I join with many others in praying that the young boy will recover from the injuries he has suffered,” he said.
Last week a man in his 50s died near his house in Shragh, Kilrush, Co. Clare after he was involved in a farm accident with machinery.
Gardai and the Health and Safety Authority are investigating this incident.
According to the HSA 16 have been killed in farming-related accidents in 2015 and it says that age and location are key factors in farm deaths in Ireland.
It says that deaths in agriculture, unlike many other sectors, generally involve family members including children and elderly persons.