The Rural Voice, 1978-10, Page 14Lambton deaths prompt
farm safety education
By Alice Gibb
A rash of farm accidents in Lambton County this summer has
led to the decision to offer farm safety instruction to students in
the county's schools.
The decision to discuss farm safety in any elementary school
with more than a 20 per cent rural student population was made
after farm accidents claimed the lives of seven people in the
county this summer. -
Five of the victims were under 13 years of age and six of the
seven accidents involved tractors.
On May 2 the first fatality was Donald Lee Alderman, 11 years
of age, of R.R.1, Inwood killed after being thrown from a
tractor on his father's Brooke Township farm.
Daniel Lucien Bruno, 13 of Brigden was killed on May 24 when
he was run over by a tractor he had been riding on.
Emily Johnston, of R.R. 6, Alvinston, four years old, was
killed on July 6 after falling 30 feet from a neighbor's hayloft.
On July 11, Mark Fitzpatrick Vallieres, 11, of R.R. 3, Oil
Springs, fell off a hay wagon pulled by a farm tractor driven by
his father. The boy was crushed by the undercarriage.
On July 13, Louis Crow, 39 of Mooretown, was killed when the
tractor he was driving rolled down an embankment.
Paul Allan Stephenson, 21 months old, died when he was
caught underneath a tractor which was pulling a baler.
The final fatal accident occurred when James R. Vivian of
R.R.5, Forest, was killed after a tractor rolled over and pinned
him underneath when he was cutting grass along a county road.
In 1977, Lambton County had only two farm -related fatalities
and this summer's rash of accidents caused concern not only
among farm organizations, but also among the general public.
Coroner Dr. Harold Shabsove of Petrolia, who investigated a
number of the deaths, asked the Lambton County board of
education to consider teaching farm safety formally in the public
and high schools, "even to the point of making this course
mandatory for farm children" to prevent further tragedies in the
future.
Campaign
Also, the Lambton County Junior Farmers organization
immediately launched a campaign among other farm or-
ganizations to organize a Farm Safety Association in the county.
The county had a farm safety organization at the time of the
1973 International Plowing Match, held in Lambton County, but
the organization has since dissolved.
The Farm Safety Association, which has 24 separate county
associations promotes an awareness of the dangers of farm
equipment, and other hazards around the farm workplace.
The association is one of nine safety organizations in the
province and operates in much the same way as the Construction
Safety Association.
The farm Safety Association is sponsored by the Workmen's
Compensation Board of Ontario and compiles farm injury
statistics for the 23,000 farm employers in the province who pay
into the compensation board.
Although Lambton County experienced an unusual number of
PG. 14 THE RURAL VOICE/OCTOBER 1978
deaths involving farm equipment this summer, every year farm
accidents claim a number of lives in Ontario.
In 1977. there were 33 farm deaths in total across the province.
Agriculture's injury frequency is exceeded only by the mining
and forestry Industries in Ontario.
Larry Swin, director of the Farm Safety Association of Guelph,
said in 1977 there were two fatal farm accidents in Huron
County, three fatal farm accidents in Perth County and four in
Bruce County.
This summer, two people . lost their lives in Huron County
farm accidents, two in Perth County and one in Bruce County.
Unlike Lambton County', the counties of Huron, Perth and
Bruce have had established Farm Safety Associations for some
time.
Swin .
Mr. Swin said one problem facing the farm population is that
farm children are unique in that they are involved in the
workplace, unlike urban children, who are usually far removed
from the place where their parents are employed.
Mr. Swin said the Farm Safety Association tris to emphasize
that children do not have a place in the agricultural workplace.
The director pointed out that two-thirds of Lambton County's
farming fatalities this summer involved children who were in the
farm workplace.
This fall, Lambton County students will receive farm safety
instruction either from an OPP constable who visits the schools
annually to discuss safety or from Daryl Wells, Farm Safety
Association consultant.
Constable Paul Phillips, the community services officer who
will be co-ordinating the farm safety lectures in the schools, said
students from Kindergarten to Grade 8 will receive pointers on
safety on the farm.
He said one particular emphasis will be on "tractor safety.
since one third of farm fatalities involve tractors.
Constable Phillips said he will be pointing ouf tp the students
that tractors have one seat and are designed to carry one person.
Rviewing
He said he will also be reviewing the dangers of implements
like combines and hay balers and the dangers of silo gas and of
other chemicals found around the farm.
Although Constable Phillips will give his safety lecture to
students in a school only once a year. he hopes teachers will
follow up the talk with safety slogan competitions or other
programs.
The provincial government has also been concerned with
safety in the agricultural workplace, and this fall. 13111 70, which
deals with new legislation for health and safety , will be
introduced in the legislature for the third and final reading.
In the past, the agricultural community has escaped most of
the rules and regulations that cover industry in regard to health
and safety legislation.
The farm safety and insurance committee of the Ontario
Federation of Agriculture, which has been meeting for some
time to consider dill 70, want farmers to be exempt from. all but