Purdue News

NOTE TO JOURNALISTS: National Farm Safety and Health Week is Sept. 20-26. More information about the week is available at the National Safety Council's Web site. September 18, 1998 Fewer dying in accidents on Indiana farms WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- A summary of farm fatalities in Indiana shows that 21 people died in farm accidents in 1997. That is three fewer than in 1996 and half as many as died in 1995. Bill Field, professor of agricultural and biological engineering and director of Purdue University's Agricultural Safety and Health Program, said the number of farm fatalities in Indiana has been steadily declining. "When I started doing this summary 20 years ago, the number of annual deaths in Indiana was in the high 40s, sometimes in the 50s, but we've been around 25 deaths for the past few years," Field said. He cited three reasons for the reduction: "First of all, there are fewer farms. Next, the equipment is safer than it was several years ago -- the most common cause of death is tractor rollovers, and more tractors now have rollover protection structures. Third, the efforts by our program and others like it seem to be having an effect on how the farmers go about their job." One category that has seen a sharp reduction is the number of deaths of people ages 1 to 17. "I feel good that we don't see the flow of reports of children dying that we used to see a few years ago," Field said. "In 1982 about a third of the fatalities were children. Now it's down to 15 percent -- that's about half of the rate of other states. That's a real reflection of the effectiveness of Purdue's Rural Indiana Safer Kids (RISK) program and 4-H programs that stress safety. I think we've made a real difference." Field said that during the years he has been monitoring farm fatalities, some patterns have emerged that may serve as warnings to farm families: Almost all of the deaths are males; only one female was killed on the farm in Indiana in 1997. "As always, the biggest killer in 1997 was tractor overturns, and the second biggest was tractor run-overs," Field said. "Tractors were involved in 38 percent of the deaths. It's usually about half. Livestock-related incidents were the third-highest cause of death on the farm, and the fourth-most-common cause of fatalities was grain entrapments." More than half of the victims are over 60 years old. "There's no other hazardous occupation that regularly uses laborers in their 70s and 80s," Field said. "When you hit 50, they take you out of the coal mines or other hazardous jobs." A quarter of the fatalities are part-time hobby farmers. "The part-time farmers are quite vulnerable," Field said. "They tend to be less experienced, and that leads to problems. They also tend to buy old equipment that lacks the safety features found on newer equipment." Many of the children killed on the farm were in the care of grandparents. "The grandparents' perception of risk, what a child can or can't do, isn't as good as it once was. They take the children into dangerous situations without fully recognizing the risk," Field said. Source: William Field, (765) 494-1191; e-mail, field@ecn.purdue.edu Writer: Steve Tally, (765) 494-9809; e-mail, tally@aes.purdue.edu Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; e-mail, purduenews@purdue.edu To the Purdue News and Photos Page