The family of a three-year-old who died after being run over by a forklift truck on a farm say the "only saving grace" was he suffered no pain.
Linzi and Richard Nelson lost their three-year-old son Stuart last year when he ran round a corner into the path of a reversing vehicle.
Mr Nelson inadvertently ran over his son while reversing a forklift truck on Cuttle Hill Farm near Crossgates, Fife in February, last year.
And he and his wife Linzi have spoken of the tragedy for the first time as new figures show that five people were killed in agriculture accidents in the last year. An identical number died in the previous year.
The youngest person killed was an eight-year-old girl who died in an incident on a forestry site in Benderloch in July 2017. The oldest person fatally injured was an 82-year-old man who was struck by a moving vehicle.
Among staff, the biggest cause of death in the UK was livestock, accounting for a quarter of all fatalities, followed with being struck by a farm vehicle at 18 per cent, and by a structure collapsing at 15 per cent.
Keep children safe on farms as school holidays begin
Mr Nelson said: "It was a total accident. No-one is to blame. He was in my blind spot.
"It was a very painful day. For once it was a nice, dry, late winter/early spring day. Linzi was back from her work, so Stuart came out to be with me.
"I was operating the forklift. I always kept my eyes wide open, making sure I knew he was out the way.
"I just couldn't see him for love nor money. It was a total accident.
"When the accident happened, I was like 'please God don't let that be Stuart'. When I moved the machine back he was just lying there... lifeless."
Mrs Nelson told the BBC: "The only saving grace was that he was no pain. The accident was quick. He didn't have to suffer. We didn't have to make any life choices for him.
"We were lucky that he was taken to the Edinburgh Sick Kids Hospital, because they treated him like he was one of their own.
The Health and Safety Executive investigated the death, and sent a file to the procurator fiscal.
Former JLS Star JB Gill is among those who have thrown their weight behind an initiative to improve farm safety for both staff and children after it emerged agriculture is still one of the most dangerous industries to work in.
Singer Gill, who turned to rearing pigs, turkeys and chickens after quitting music in 2013 and was purported to have bought an estate near Blairgowrie, Perthshire five years ago, has joined forces with Farm Safety Week to call for better safety measures on working farms.
Gill, who has two young children, said: "Farms can be wonderful places for children to grow up but the sad fact is that farms are the only workplace where children continue to be involved in fatal accidents, which is heart-breaking for the farm owners and the families involved, as well as a horrific tragedy for their communities.
"Being part of the farming community and having a young child myself, I want to help highlight the importance of child safety on farms."
While children are at risk, the organisers of Farm Safety Week, which runs between July 16 and 20, emphasised that older adults accounted for the majority of deaths.
Young farmers taught to take the safety message home.
Twenty-one of 29 farmer workers killed in the UK were over the age of 60, while 14 were over the age of 65.
Farm Safety Week is a joint initiative by the Farm Safety Foundation, the Farm Safety Partnership, the HSE, the HSE for Northern Ireland and the Irish Health & Safety Authority.
Ian Pirie, a cattle and sheep farmer from Maud, Aberdeenshire, has spoken about an accident that left him unable to work at one of the busiest times of the year.
Ian, his wife and eldest son, farm near Peterhead where he finishes around 1,000 head of cattle and have 200 breeding ewes.
Although many know the dangers of working with cattle, and farmers and crofters know their herds better than anyone, the animals can be unpredictable.
Ian explained that earlier this year he was sorting through a pen of cattle, and one came from the behind him, kicking him with its hind legs.
Mr Pirie explained: “It happened so quickly. I’ve had plenty of kicks by cattle over the last 50 years, so I didn’t think much of it.”
Unfortunately, this kick was not the same as any other. Ian was left with little to no power and control going through his leg and after leaving it for the night to see if it would improve he phoned the doctor the next morning. “I went to A&E at Peterhead and had it x-rayed,” said Mr Pirie.
“It showed that there was a slight chip to my knee, but thankfully it wasn’t broken. I was referred to a consultant and surgeon in Aberdeen who after further investigation realised the tendons were all severed above my knee. They operated the next day.
“If the surgery hadn’t been carried out at that stage my knee wouldn’t have worked properly again. It’s like broken cables, it’s not something that reconnects over time.”
The injury caused Ian to be housebound during one of the busiest times of the year for the farm but thankfully his family helped out.
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