FOUR people died in the North-East and North Yorkshire as a result of agricultural accidents last year.

National figures released this week also revealed a growing trend towards deaths among the self-employed.

Linda Williams, the Health and Safety Executive's chief inspector of agriculture, said a total of 38 people in agriculture were killed during 2002-03.

This was the lowest number for more than ten years, but she warned against complacency, particularly among the self-employed. "This group accounted for 20 cases,"she said. Employee deaths numbered 15, and three were members of the public, including one child," she said.

"If we compare the workforce figures with those for the previous year, the number of self-employed who died rose by one, while the number of employees fell by five.

"In a sector where the workforce is declining year on year, any rising trend of injuries is of special concern, because it means that the injury rate - the number of workers killed per 100,000 - is even higher than it appears from the headline figures."

Mrs Williams said the Agricultural Inspectorate would continue to run its programme of safety awareness days specifically targeted at the self-employed and family farms. It also planned to strengthen links with the NFU, TGWU and other relevant organisations.

This year the HSE will target transport, which claimed 12 lives last year; falls; child safety, and musculoskeletal disorders in their visits to farms and forests.

The North Yorkshire deaths included a 19-year-old, kicked in the head by one of four horses over-wintered in a paddock. He was accidentally kicked by one horse as he fastened the strap on another's blanket.

The other incident involved a 55-year-old self-employed farmer who was found in a field, with severe head and chest injuries. He is believed either to have been crushed by a bull which had attacked him three days earlier, or to have fainted and been trampled by cattle.

The North-East fatalities involved a 24-year-old gamekeeper, killed when his ATV left the road and hit a tree. He was not wearing the head protection provided.

In the other incident, a 28-year-old self-employed man died when he became trapped up a tree which caught fire. He was dismantling two trees in a garden and started a fire at the base of one to burn the branches. It is thought that a branch he had sawn off and dropped to the ground caught fire and ignited the lower branches of the tree he was in.