Alabama Farm Safety  Education Program Addressing Safe Tractor Operations

Auburn, AL---In the last month, two Alabamians have been killed in tractor overturn accidents. According to the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, 75 percent of all farm fatalities are the result of tractor implement incidents.  About 47 percent of all farm fatalities are the result of tractor overturn.    

“Virtually all of these overturn incidents are preventable by using safety approved roll over protection structures on all tractors and using the operator seat belt,“ said Dr. Jesse LaPrade, an environmental and farm safety specialist with the Alabama Cooperative Extension System.  

The first priority of the Alabama Farm Safety Education program is to address the safe tractor operations and to provide National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health statistics to Alabama farmers and farm workers. 

“It’s important for farm workers to know injury statistics, such as times of year they most often occur, what body parts are injured the most and the most common injury incidence for farm specialty areas, such as row crop farming, livestock production and nursery production,” said LaPrade, who coordinates and manages the farm safety education program for the Extension System.

Farming continues to be one of the most hazardous occupations in the United States, with 20.3 farm fatalities occurring annually for every 100,000 farm workers.  With an average of 60,000 farm workers in Alabama, these figures suggest an average of 12 farm worker fatalities annually in Alabama.

The Alabama Farm Safety Education program’s second priority is youth farm safety education. This part of the program is accomplished by supporting youth safety day camps, coordinated by Progressive Farmer throughout Alabama providing youth education training material development and/or assembly; providing training for parents to design and build safe play areas for youth on their farms; providing guidance for parents to match youth age and developmental skills to appropriate farm chores and providing all-terrain vehicle training for youth.        

Educational materials are also available on a variety of other farm safety concerns including electrical safety; heat stress and heat stroke; avoiding West Nile Virus infection; eye and hearing protection; working safely in dusty environments; reducing slips, trips and falls and proper lifting and carrying techniques.

LaPrade encourages owners and managers of every farm to develop a safety management plan and routinely provide training for all farm workers.  All safety plans should contain a goal, name of person responsible for training employees, a list of components covered by the training effort, dates of training and the names of employees trained.

“The development of individual farm safety management plans should reduce fatalities and debilitating injuries as well as the liability of the farm enterprise,” said LaPrade. “There are no farming operations in Alabama that can afford not to develop a safety management plan.” 

Alabama’s Farm Safety Education program is supported by the Alabama Cooperative Extension System, Auburn University, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service.    

For more information about Alabama’s program, contact your county Extension office. For help in developing a safety management plan for your farm, call LaPrade, at (334) 844-5533.

Source:  Dr. Jesse LaPrade, Environmental and Farm Safety Specialist, Alabama Cooperative Extension System,  (334) 844-5533.

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