An eight-year-old girl has become the latest person to die in a farming accident this year, bringing the total number of farm deaths to 23 for the year.
The accident, which happened in Cork, is believed to have involved farming machinery. The accident happened outside Newtownshandrum and the girl was taken to hospital after being initially treated by a local GP.
It is believed that the young girl was playing with an 11-year-old girl in the field, when the bucket on a tractor fell onto them. The other girl was seriously hurt in the incident and is being treated in hospital.
The dead girl’s parents were out of the country when the incident happened yesterday.
It comes after a woman in Co. Roscommon was killed when she was trampled on by cattle last week. The woman, Lucy Connor, was in her 60s, and was killed on a farm near Kilrooskey. Another woman was seriously hurt in the incident, when cattle became spooked and charged the women.
This brings the total of farming-related deaths to 23 this year, despite numerous publicity campaigns around the issue.