Aydan and Brendan Garrett

Working towards a safer farm is worth everything

‘Everything is fine until it’s not fine. When it’s not fine, it’s too late,’ said Brendan.

Aydan remembers little of the incident that nearly killed him, but for his father Brendan, the memories remain vivid.

‘In the distance I saw him hanging out the back of the tractor and the adrenaline started to kick in. That's when I sprinted towards him,’ Brendan said.

‘When I got there the tractor was still running. I saw Aydan's head split open with blood everywhere. There was smashed glass, so I knew he'd got thrown around in the cabin.’

Aydan suffered life-threatening injuries after the tractor he was operating collided with the bucket of a front-end loader.

'People find some safety requirements a burden or costly, but when you see your son unconscious with barely any signs of life, you realise working towards a safer farm is worth everything,' Brendan said.

Sustaining eight broken vertebrae, a traumatic brain injury, multiple skull and sternum fractures and a permanent deep depression in his skull, Aydan said the road to recovery was long.

‘It took the paramedics about 4 hours just to get me out of the tractor,’ he said. ‘I was in hospital for 5 weeks after major spinal fusion surgery and it took me another 3 years to get back working full-time.’

‘I still struggle with lifting and bending over, and managing pain and fatigue.’

Aydan and Brendan shared their story for National Farm Safety Week to show how simple safety measures can spare families from life-changing incidents.

‘I never want to see my son, or anyone else, go through something like that again,’ Brendan said.

‘We've become a lot more conscious of all our equipment,’ said Aydan. ‘We've got pre-start checklists for machinery, and we always make sure we're using the safety features on our vehicles and machinery like PTO covers, roll-over protection and seatbelts.’