MADISON, Wis. (RFD News) — Farming remains one of the most hazardous industries in the country, with CDC data showing agriculture workers are five times more likely to die on the job compared to other professions.
John Shutske with the University of Wisconsin-Madison says falls are still the most common type of injury on farms, particularly when getting on and off tractors and equipment.
“Falls that happen when you’re getting onto and off of tractors and equipment. If you fall just a couple of feet, yeah, you could sprain ankles, you could break legs. When you’re getting on and off that equipment, we always talk about three points of contact. You always want to maintain that stability by going from two to three. You increase your stability by 50 percent, and if you do slip or fall, you’ve got some additional points of balance. We always want to think about a three-legged stool, and it’s exactly the same when you’re getting onto and off of equipment. It’s tempting, if you’re in a hurry, to jump from that second or third step from the top, and that’s when we see the sprained ankles and torn ACLs.”
While falls remain the most common injury, Shutske says tractor rollovers continue to be the leading cause of death in farm accidents.
“That’s still a leading cause of death, although thanks to the rollover protective structure or ROPS, we’ve made a lot of progress compared to when I was a young farm safety specialist. Compared to now, like 35 years later, we’ve seen a dramatic reduction in farm fatalities, and that’s largely because of rollover protection. At the same time, we still see a lot of tractors out there without ROPs. Tractors can roll over either sideways, which typically involves either rough terrain, people hitting a rut, or driving over a stump or rock.”
According to the CDC, tractors were involved in nearly 40 percent of farm fatalities, with farmers age 65 and older accounting for 40 percent of those deaths.
