“I thought I was the fierce man on the quad"

Ballinagh native Philip Crowe is one of the best-known Limousin farmers in the country. His bulls regularly bring home rosettes and as vice president of the Irish Limousin Cattle Society he often gives talks on the proficiency of the breed. Beside this, he manages 150 sows and 40 pedigree blue texel ewes on his farm. All until 10 weeks ago, when an accident stopped the whole business.

“The quad probably just sat out in the rain and hadn’t been used in so long. That evening as soon as we got back I hopped on it to go up for a bit of stuff around the house and put down the boot. Of course, going too fast, not thinking what it was doing. And the accelerator stuck on it. Instead of me doing 10-20 kilometers around the corner, I was driving too fast anyway. But you know, when I took my hand off the accelerator to go around the corner, I was probably doing 60, it kept going faster.”

He was flung off the machine.

His six and eight-year-old children found him. The scene left a lasting impression. “They’re ok now,” Philip says. “My wife and parents and all were very upset.”

From one moment to another the whole family was upended.

“I thought I was the fierce man on the quad,” he says. Twenty years using the machine, there had never been an issue. He never considered there would be. Having coached rugby, he has internalised the bravado associated with the sport.

“We think we’re invincible until it hits us,” he surmises.

Philip came away with a head injury, deep cuts in the leg, dislocated kneecap, torn patellar, bruises. More than two months later he has resumed farming, although on crutches, and with a humbled mindset: “Look, it’s terrible. My 73-year-old mother and my brother have taken up the whole slack for the last 10 weeks. It’s more than I could nearly expect of them, but they’ve done it. I’m back out now. I suppose I’m about 30%. Doing certain things in the unit to take a bit of pressure off them.”

He is fully aware that his accident put a burden on the whole family. While he is more than grateful to his family for stepping in and the farming community for helping out with organising his annual “breeders choice” sheep sale to cushion the blow of lost income, this could’ve been prevented.

Philip felt the responsibility to speak up about what happened to him and address the farming community. At the Cavan IFA summer event in Virginia last week, he wanted to raise awareness about farm accidents.

According to Teagasc, it is estimated that over 4,500 farm accidents occur annually in Ireland, with almost half of such accidents resulting in hospital treatment and significant work absenteeism.

“We’re always in a rush, there’s always something else to be done, getting onto the quad, no helmet, ripping down the lane and then of course when something mechanically went wrong, I was in a bother.

“I hadn’t been trained. I had no instinct to pull that kill switch. With the fright and panic, I wasn’t coached to do it. And look, if I had been, I would have saved myself a lot of bother now.”

Another crucial point Philip hoped to bring across is personal liability.

“Of course I have everything insured bar myself. That will change now,” he reflects.

With the right insurance policy, a farm help can take the pressure from family members and the financial loss can be limited. A message he learned the hard way.