WINNIPEG – About 10 toddlers and pre-schoolers die on Canadian farms
each year and that must stop, says a doctor who compiles the statistics.
Dr. Rob Brison, a professor of emergency medicine at Queen’s
University, told a national conference that young children must be the
priority in safety campaigns.
“I’ve spent hundreds of hours reading coroners’ reports and patient
records and spent 20 years in emergency departments with patients ….
I know most of these injuries are preventable. The worst are those to
Read Also
Stock dogs show off herding skills at Ag in Motion
Stock dogs draw a crowd at Ag in Motion. Border collies and other herding breeds are well known for the work they do on the farm.
little kids.”
Brison said safety experts must warn parents to keep their children off
the farm work site. He said the leading causes of death for children
aged one to six are tractor rollovers, tractor runovers and drowning in
dugouts, wells and sewage lagoons. The pre-schooler deaths represent 10
percent of all farm-related fatalities, he said.
Manitoba farmer Chuck Fossay said producers tend to have a false sense
of security that the farmyard is part of the home and is safe. Also,
they pay lip service to safety.
“Every farmer I know will say safety is important …. However, if you
go a few days later, you will see they will take short cuts.”
Fossay said farmers are risk takers and independently minded, so
government regulations won’t make them change how they do things. The
best way to change attitudes is working with the younger generation in
school and through public education campaigns.
Focusing on the cost of not working safely is also effective, Fossay
said. It hits home if a farmer has to pay a custom combiner $20,000
because he is in the hospital for two weeks with an injury.
Rob Meijer, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business’s
agribusiness manager, said a federation survey of Manitoba farmers
showed that most want voluntary, not forced, compliance. He suggested
more farmers attend safety conferences to learn facts such as that, for
every farmer killed in Manitoba, 25 others are hospitalized and 500
more require some medical aid.
He said farmers should be persuaded to be part of the solution, through
volunteer work for farm safety presentations to children, for example.
Too much negative publicity about accidents is scaring the public, who
do not want their children working on farms, he added.
