HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1988-07-27, Page 5Farm Safety week THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, JULY 27, 1988. PAGE 5.
Shocking demonstration stresses safety
In a shocking demonstration of what could happen to a man caught in a
PTO shaft, Farm Safety Consultant Steve Matisz of the Farm Safety
Association allowed the sleeve of a straw dummy to touch the running
shaft. The dummy was completely destroyed. Glenn Creamer
[background] of CKNX-TV records the “accident”.
BY TOBY RAINEY
The instantthe sleeve of the blue
work shirt touched the PTO shaft,
the limp body was whipped around
and through the eight-inch gap
between the shaft and the spreader
tongue, spilling its contents onto
the ground on the other side.
The graphic incident was only a
demonstration, and the body made
of straw, but it left no doubt as to
the fate or real flesh and blood
under the same circumstances; the
impact was clear in the few
moments of shocked silence that
followed.
The simulated accident was part
of a special Media Day at Hill and
Hill Farms near Varna on July 14,
put on by the Huron County Branch
of the Farm Safety Association to
attractattentionto Farm Safety
Week, July 25 - 31, and to
emphasize the importance of
safety procedures on the farm.
“(Media) co-operation has no
doubt made a significant contribu
tion toward lowering fatality rates
in agriculture... and we appreciate
the help you have given us,” Don
Young of RR 3, Auburn, secretary
of the HCFSA, told the dozen or so
media personnel at the event.
The day’s agenda included the
stories of three Huron County
farmers injured in farm accidents,
told by the victims themselves. All
are lucky to be alive today.
A moment of carelessness 18
months ago has left Neil Staple ton
of RR 2, Auburn, with a serious
spinal cord injury, although he
could easily have been killed when
a 1,500 lb. bale fell on him on
February 3, 1987.
To this day the memory of the
accident is vivid in his mind,
making him break out into a cold
sweat as he talks about it. But talk
he does, because he feels that if his
experience can save even one
farmer from a similar disaster, it
will not have been in vain. Mr.
Stapleton was the guest speaker at
the annual convention of the Farm
Safety Association in Toronto last
spring, and the first speaker at the
July 14 demonstration.
The former high-school teacher-
turned-farmer was injured when
he raised the front-end loader of his
tractor, on which he knew the bale
was imporperly speared, straight
above his head to give the machine
better traction in an early thaw.
The bale fell on his neck and back
and bounced off, so that his wife,
Nancy, who came running in
response to his call, didn’t know
immediately what had happened.
“I still remember the surprise,
thinking ‘that bale hit me!’ ” Mr.
Stapleton said - and then the pain
began, unimaginable pain that
couldn’t be relieved for close to 12
hours while doctors worked franti
cally to avert shock and determine
the extent of his injuries before
giving him rest.
Today, the West Wawanosh
farmer gets around with the aid of
leg braces and a cane, and still does
much of the field work since his
ability to drive is intact. However,
farm chores are a slow, awkward
and frustrating business, with
much of the burden falling on
Nancy, as it has since the accident,
and he is looking for a job in
agri-business where his handicap
won’t be a burden.
“Don’t ever get in so much of a
hurry that you can’t be careful,”
Mr. Stapleton warns. “In my case,
it wasn’t the equipmentthat failed,
it was faulty use of equipment.”
Don MacGregor of RR 1,
Londesboro, thought he was being
careful on the cold February day in
1972 when he lost his right leg in an
auger. Then a 19-year-old farm
hand, he thought he had taken
every precaution when he climbed
into the silo to knock loose the
frozen silage, and was surprised
when he saw his leg on the other
side of the unloader auger.
“I wondered how it could have
got through such a small hole,” he
recalls - and then the pain hit, and
he screamed for help. It took more
than half an hour for rescue
personnel to extricate the young
man so he could be rushed to St.
Joseph’s Hospital in London,
where the mangled leg was
amputated above the knee.
“At first I wanted to die - I
thought, ‘I’m too young to be hurt
this bad, ’ ” he recalls. But with the
devotion of his bride-to-be, Kitty,
who married him a month after the
accident, as planned, and who was
at his side constantly through the
next few agonizing years, he has
emerged unscathed - exceptfor the
artificial leg, jointed at the knee,
which he wears without self-con
sciousness, even to play ball.
Today, he says he hardly
remembers any of the “bad stuff,”
addingthatthereisnotmuch he
can’tdoifheputshismindtoit. His
advice to young people is: listen to
your Dad; and to farmers: make
sureyou have Workmen’s Com
pensation if you hire anybody.
Workmen’s Compensation paid
his way through the agri-business
course at Centralia College after
the accident, starting him on a
successful career in construction
he enjoys today. “If that guy
hadn’t had compensation, I would
own his farm today,’’ Mr. Mac
Gregor says.
The final accident victim to
speak was John Rau of RR 2,
Zurich, who came within a breath
of losing his life to manure gas in
1979. He was cleaning the gutters
in his pig barn, he remembers,
when he heard some of the animals
squealing “like they were dying. ’ ’
I started to run toward them, and
then there was just no more air to
breathe -1 thought I’d had a heart
attack,’’ he says. With his last
ounce of strength, he managed to
get a long-unused door open before
collapsing in the snow outside,
where his son found him a few
minutes later.
‘ ‘I told the boy I’d had a heart
attack, and togofor help, but he
said no, it must have been gas -
The International
Scene
2 Japanese
molehills
BY RAYMOND CANON
Every once in a while some news
item crosses my desk that makes
me want to shake my head in
amazement. The latestone con
cerns twotiny Japanese islands
that, it seems, are about to
disappear under the surface of the
Pacific Ocean. The islands are so
small that the larger of the two
measures only 15 feet long. Under
normal circumstances the disap
pearance of such islands would not
cause much constirnation in any
capital of the world but these are
most definitely not ordinary is
lands. A little explanation is in
order.
The two islands in question are
located in the Pacific Ocean about
1,100 miles south of Tokyo. The
main island, which was a bit bigger
earlier in the century, had been
there’s a bunch of dead pigs in
there.”
Mr. Rau survived, but 28 pigs in
the barn died while another 35 to 40
were found prolapsed, bleeding
from the nose and mouth, or blind.
It was a close call, and for months
following the incident, Mr. Rau
says he was scared whenever he
cleaned gutters. ‘ ‘There’s no smell
to that (manure gas), you’re just
gone,” he warns.
“Farm safety is often over
looked,” said Huron County agri
culture representative Don Pullen
Hallett Twp. farmer Don MacGregor, right, and OMAF Crop
Specialist Brian Hall share a pensive moment as Mr. MacGregor
recalled what it was like to lose a leg in a farm accident at the age of 19.
“At first I wanted to die,” he said.
formerly discovered by the Japa
nese and a claim laid to it in 1931.
There does not even seem to be one
name for it but in Japanese
geography books it normally goes
by the name of Okinotorishima.
There are no other islands really
close to it although the island of Iwo
Jima, of World War II fame, is
some 400 miles away.
At any rate earlier this spring a
Japanese flotilla set out to prevent
the two tiny islands from disap
pearing forever into the Pacific
Ocean. The expedition will not
come cheap; it is expected to cost in
the neighbourhood of $300 million
dollars since the ships are loaded
down with concrete, construction
workers and helicopters. When
they arrive at the two islands,
assuming that they can still find
them, a massive construction
project will begin that will see the
islands shielded from further
erosion. Helicopters will lower
blocks of iron into the sea to form
rings around the two islands; then
each ring’s interior will be packed
with concrete. The whole under
taking is expected to take three
years to complete.
oftheClinton OMAF office. “Iwas
born and raised on a farm, and I’ve
taken my share of chances - and
been lucky. But there’s one time
when you ’ll take one chance too
many, and it will be too late.”
“We want to make Huron
County one of the safest counties in
the province,’’ Mr. Pullen con
cluded.
All those involved later said they
felt that the day had been well
organized and well received, and
several indicated that it may
become an annual event in raising
the profile of farm safety.
Why are the Japanese going to
such an expense for two dots in the
ocean? There is no oil there,
nothing of any value, that is, not
thatmeets the eye. The importance
ofthem is as follows. The Japanese
government is determined to
secure what it calls the country’s
territorial integrity. If it allowed
the two islands to disappear, this
would mean that the Japanese
territorial waters would end at the
200 mile line around the group of
islands which include the above
mentioned Iwo Jima.
However, if the two islands are
preserved as part of Japan, the
country stands to gain an addition
al 120,000 square miles of sea with
all the fishing rights that such an
area brings with it. Given that
fishing is very much a part of the
country’s food supply and no other
country is likely toclaim the region,
it is understandable why the
Japanese are so anxious to make
sure that Okinotorishima remains
a part of their country.
If, however, some country were
to take Japan to court over the
sovereignty of the two islands, it
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