Farmer injured in post-driver accident raises awareness around safe use

A farmer who needed five hours of surgery to save his thumb after it was hit by a 200kg hammer of a fencing post driver is urging others to follow important safety guidance.

Alwyn Watkins, who farms beef and sheep at his 210 hectare upland farm in Powys, Wales, was replacing fencing on a field boundary on a hillside, using a post driver, when the incident happened.

He admits he was rushing to get the job done and hadn’t carefully considered the implications when a stake snapped and he reached for it without moving the arm and weight of the driver out of the way.