RANDOM investigations have been carried out regarding working practices at farms throughout Worcestershire and Herefordshire.

A team of Health & Safety Executive agricultural inspectors carried out field checks and yard inspections at 97 farms, nurseries, market gardens and horticultural businesses, over a period of two weeks.

The checks had been planned earlier this year but were seen as particularly relevant in light of the train crash on a level crossing at Charlton, near Evesham in July in which three foreign workers were killed.

Islam Ahmed, aged 46, from Bangladesh, Soran Karim, 23, from Iraq, and 28-year-old Indian Satish Kumar all died when the minibus in which they were travelling was in a collision with a high-speed train, on Monday, July 7.

The men were employed to pick fruit at White House Farm in the town and their deaths added to a tally of 38 fatalities in agriculture in the last year.

"One of the main objections of the blitz was to look at the employment of foreign students and whether training and safety information was being provided for people whose command of English may be limited or non-existent," said HSE inspector Alastair Mitchell.

"The high number of deaths recently makes the issue is a priority for the HSE."

As a result of the investigations, work was stopped on four farms in the area.

Two prohibition notices were served because of inadequate guarding of "power take-off" shafts which link tractors to other pieces of machinery, a third was for a farmer allowing a 16-year-old boy to operate machinery unsupervised, and the fourth was when a tractor was being used without a roll bar or safety cab to protect the driver.

The drive by the HSE is only the latest example of its activity in trying to raise standards of health and safety for seasonal workers and employees of gangmasters.

HSE is also involved with "Operation Gangmaster", a multi-agency operation involving the Department for Work and Pensions, Customs, Inland Revenue and Immigration departments.