Seventy percent of agricultural fatalities are machine-related, according to the Canada Safety Council. The National Farm Safety Week, March 14-20, aims to raise awareness, provide recommendations and encourage all farming families, workers, and visitors to recognize the need for safety around vehicles and machinery on the farm.
Statistics show that Agriculture is the fourth most hazardous industry in Canada, including a higher than average risk for children. According to the Canadian Agricultural Injury Reporting, 248 children died from agriculture-related injuries between 1990 and 2008, 63 percent which were machine-related.
The Canada Safety Council offers some recommendations to make your farm a safer place:
- Do not operate farm machinery or vehicles when impaired. Impairing substances include alcohol, some medications and drugs. Impairment can also take other forms. These include fatigue, emotional stress and distractions.
- Always walk around your machinery or vehicle before starting the equipment. Children, pets, farm animals or debris may be hiding in your blind spots.
- Know the terrain of the land that is being farmed. When possible, avoid steep ditches and other areas where rollovers are more likely to occur.
- Use machinery and vehicles for their intended purposes only.
- Do not carry more passengers on machines or vehicles than recommended.
- Always keep your hands, feet and body in general clear of moving parts. Use safety guards and keep the machinery in good repair.
- Keep work areas neat and clean.
- Underage persons should not operate vehicles or machinery.
- Teach children safety fundamentals. This includes clearly identifying where farm machinery and vehicles are operated, and where they may not play. Children need to develop a healthy respect for the potential dangers of being near a moving machine or vehicle, and learn how to stay safe.
- If you are the owner/operator of a farm, clearly communicate to your staff that risk-taking involving machinery or vehicles is not allowed or tolerated. Your employees should understand that you expect them to always operate in a safe manner. This includes no speeding and no impaired or distracted driving.
- Make sure operators are competent, confident and capable when it comes to using machinery. If additional training or instruction is necessary, make safety the priority. Take the time to read manuals, ask questions and consult industry experts who can give you answers.
- Have an emergency plan and review it often with anyone who is regularly at your farm. This plan should include contact information for local emergency responders, and contact information for friends or relatives who can be called if something goes wrong.
- Motorists, give farm-machinery operators the room they need on the road. Be patient and pass with caution when it is safe to do so.