The Rural Voice, 1980-06, Page 16Farm accidents
A safety campaign in the schools tries to
make sure they don't happen
BY ALICE GIBB
One third of all victims of fatal farm
accidents in Ontario each year are under 20
years of age.
With this statistic in mind. the Ontario
Farm Safety Association decided in recent
years to start aiming its farm safcty
message at elementary school students as
well as adults working on the farm.
Jim Ross. of the Farm Safety Association
in Guelph, said the first trial program in
getting this message intq the schools was
tried in Grey County in 1978.
The association subsidized a teacher who
went into all the elementary schools in the
county with films and teaching kits
emphasizing the hazards in the agricultural
workplace.
When the Grey County program proved
successful. the Farm Safety Association
met with representatives of nine county
boards of education to propose that the
association would subsidize a similiar
program in those counties. at the rate of 17
cents per student. Bruce, Huron and Pcrth
counties were all represented at that
meeting. However. Bruce County was the
only county to adopt a variation of the
FARM SAFETY DEMONSTRATION—Constable William
Hassall of the Goderich OPP division demonstrates some of the
safe techniques necessary in working with farm machinery at
Huron Centennial School, Brucefield
PG. 14 THE RURAL VOICE/JUNE 1980
association's recommended farm safety
program.
In April of this year, a teacher visited
each elementary school in Bruce county to
discuss safety on the farm. Ron Hill.
principal of Hillcrest School in Teeswatcr
and co-ordinator of the farm safcty
program, said there has never been a
concerted, county -wide effort to cover farm
safety in Bruce County schools. although
Ontario Provincial Police officers had often
talked about topics like tractor handling in
schools.
Mr. Hill said the board decided to teach
farm safety in both rural and urban
schools, since safety on the farm involves
town students who often visit relatives or
friends on the farm. Mr. Hill said these
students may need the farm safety
program even more than rural students
who actually live on the farm.
Three teachers, Terry Kummer of Ripley
Huron Central School, Douglas Wrightson
of Port Elgin-Saugeen Central and Barry
Vincent of Amabelle-Hepworth School.
divided up the county. and spent April
blitzing the Bruce County schools.
TRACTOR SAFETY
In the primary grades. much of the
safety message dealt xvith hazards in the
home, like cleaning fluids and pressurized
cans. However. in the junior grades, Mr.
Hill said the emphasis was on tractor safety
since "we felt some (of the students) had
already likely been driving tractors."
The program started with the new film
Why Did Tommy Die?, which graphically
depicts the things adults shouldn't do
when driving tractors. This film. used in a
teaching situation for the first time in
Bruce County. was prepared by the Farm
Safety Association in co-operation with
OMAF.
Mr. Hill said the film was produced by
Bill Connell, a Wingham native, now on
the OMAF staff. One of the main points
raised in the film was that children in the
10 to 12 year old age group, "shouldn't be
driving tractors, period", the principal
said.
The Grade 7 and 8 students in the county
were presented with a two-pronged safety
message, centering both on dangerous silo
and manure gases found on the farm, and