The Rural Voice, 1980-06, Page 19Guest column
"There is more to operating
machinery than knowing how
to put it in to gear"
BY JOHN VAN BEERS
Why were 37% of Farm Fatalaties under the age of 15 in 1978?
Why in that same year were 44.7% of the injuries between 16
and 25?
These are questions that Farm Safety people are dealing with;
what's more they have the facts and figures to prove it.
Farm Safety People tell me that most concerns on farm safety
come from people that have been injured, or have lost someone
close - a child, a neighbour or a friend. Are we going to wait for
something to happen before we become concerned? How long do
you think it will be before the government will pass tough
legislation. unless we clean up our act.
First oI all, I feel that we should use more common sense, as to
what age we let our children near machinery. Being able to hold
the steering wheel is one thing, knowing what to do when
something goes wrong is something else. To know and see
dangerous situations and be able to avoid them, is equally
important.
We can only lose an arm twice, and our head once, as near as I
know. The trouble is if we all have to lose something before we
try to avoid it, we are going to be a pretty sad looking bunch. If
we look at the figures from the Farm Safety Association, we can
see that is exactly what is happening. These figures show that as
ages go up accidents decrease.
Still 1 am well aware that a fourteen year old raised on a farm,
is safer than a forty year old from the city who has never been
near a tractor. Some years ago we had somebody from the city
help us load stook s of hay. He decided to speed things up by
putting the tractor in high gear as we were going to the next pile.
I yelled at him to slow down, he jumped on all the brakes at once,
and looked back as to what I wanted. By that time I was
somewhere between the drawbar and the rear axle, commenting
on the situation in language 1 had better not repeat.
There were seventeen fatalities under the age of fifteen in
1978. Many a child's playground is between hundred horse
power tractors and Large combines. Midways and amusement
parks are for joy rides—not tractors, combines and haywagons.
It is hard to tell your little boy he has to walk back to the yard,
when you are riding up there on that tractor. Many schools today
bring in Farm Safety people who have slides, films and many
other means of teaching safety. These programs are necessary in
rural areas.
Last spring I had to tell one of my boys to walk to the house, he
couldn't ride. He smiled up at me and said "I know you don't
want me to get hurt." I felt pretty good; instead of being a mean
old man, I was doing him a favour -all thanks to the Farm Safety
Man that had been in the school.
We should all examine our habits and most of all teach young
people that there is more to operating machinery than knowing
how to put it intogear.
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R.R.6, Woodstock, Ontario N4S 7W1
519-655-2942 or 462-2704
RICHARD AND WARREN STEIN
THE RURAL VOICE/JUNE 1980 PG. 17