FARMERS and landowners in Yorkshire and the North East have been urged to be extra safe over Christmas after the region was named as a blackspot for fatalities.

The CLA, which represents thousands of landowners, farmers and rural businesses in the area, has made the appeal after 11 of the country’s 31 fatal accidents in farming and associated rural industries between April 2013 and March this year were in Yorkshire and the North East.

The figures, published by the Health & Safety Executive, show no other region in the UK has such a high incidence of fatalities. Scotland finished second highest at seven and Wales registered the lowest death toll of one.

Overturning vehicles or being struck by a moving vehicle accounted for 32 per cent of deaths, injuries from animals accounted for 23 per cent and falling from a height 16 per cent.