Video shares sad stories

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Reading Time: 2 minutes

Published: January 27, 2000

Percy Doell flips through a photo album, pausing here and there to talk about some of the pictures inside.

The pictures show a badly burned all-terrain vehicle hitched to a grain auger.

They remind Doell of the day he almost died.

“I wish it wouldn’t have happened,” he says, remembering that day.

“I’d like to turn the clock back.”

Last summer, the Sperling, Man., farmer was towing an auger behind his all-terrain vehicle, something he had done routinely before.

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But this time the auger touched an overhead power line carrying 7,200 volts.

Electricity raced through the auger, the all-terrain vehicle and into Doell, burning a third of his body.

He doesn’t remember the moment when the auger and the power line touched, but he remembers the months of agony that followed. Because of the accident, he suffered two strokes, endured several skin grafts, and had one hand amputated because of extreme burns.

“It sure throws a monkey wrench into a guy’s life. It throws a monkey wrench in there heavy duty.”

Doell decided last year to share his story with other farmers, hoping it will save them the pain and loss that he suffered.

He is one of five Manitoba farmers featured in a16-minute video released Jan. 18 during Manitoba Ag Days in Brandon. Farmer to Farmer tells how each of the five farmers was seriously injured in separate farm accidents.

Farmers with Disabilities in Manitoba produced the video and plans to distribute it across Canada. Chair Neil Enns hopes it will offer a realistic reminder of the importance of practising farm safety.

“The last thing we want is to see someone in the same situation we’re in,” said Enns, who lost his hand to a combine auger in 1995.

While relating the story of the five farmers, the video also conveys statistics showing the seriousness of the issue across Canada. More than 1,000 people have died in farming accidents in the last seven years. The number of injuries runs much higher.

Enns said reaction to the video during Ag Days was overwhelming. Farm Credit Corp. has said it would like to have a copy in each of its offices.

“It was a lot of work, but it was worth it,” Enns said about the effort that went into preparing the video.

“I would do it again.”

About the author

Ian Bell

Brandon bureau

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