"It's Easier to Bury a Tradition Than a Child"

[Rara Avis]

Is a few seconds worth the risk?

If your risky shortcut saves: You save this much time for 100 repetitions: While multiplying your risk of injury by 100!
3 seconds...........................5 minutes
5 seconds...........................10 minutes
10 seconds...........................17 minutes


Isn't your safety worth a few extra seconds?

Task.............................................................Time Invested...........................100 Repetitions
Walking down steps instead of jumping off tractor 7 seconds................................ 12 minutes
Walking around the PTO instead of stepping over it 2 seconds................................3 1/3 minutes
Engaging cylinder locks on combine when..............30 seconds................................50 minutes
working near or under header
Getting off mower to pick up something instead......20 seconds................................33 minutes
of leaning over to pick it up as you drive by

Remember: The time you invest in performing a task safely is minimal when you compare it to the high financial and emotional costs associated with death, injury and permanent disability.

Yep, Definitely ridiculously OSHA-esque...

I have had NO injuries on my farm...KNOCK ON THE FORMICA...

 

[Wayne County Hose]

Paul, I'd just like to say that we are truly blessed to have someone like you here that brings up these safety items as we tend to forget about them in our daily lives. I know that I for one, will work safer today than yesterday after reading this thread.
Now here's one for all you pilots out there, he who fly upside down have crack-up.
Also, a person dead is usually better off alive.
And
Don't teach anyone how to fish. They always end up catching bigger fish and always take your best spot.

 

[Wayne County Hose]

Perhaps you should follow the advice your proverb gives.

jihi no kokoro

 

[dieselgeek]

I grew up on a farm. Many unsafely travelled miles under this belt!!


I am on the side of the people who think we're trying to shelter ourselves too much.


Also, the "child death by tractor" figures are so staggeringly low, that I think this post shouldn't even exist. Give it a rest, more kids ages 0-17 commit suicide, by a factor of ten, than die in tractor rollovers. Some people, IMO, need to get off their high horse and find a more realistic cause to join.

 

[dieselgeek]

Interesting reading here:

Causes of Death > Other Accidents

Seems like the Child Ag Safety network is using the "miscellaneous" category and calling all of them tractor related? 238 "misc" deaths in the year 2000 which includes Agricultural accidents.

Somewhat contradictory to the info found on the "Childhood Ag Safety Network" and thus makes me wonder, what's REALLY behind this? There are more crash deaths in commercial airplanes, there are more than 40,000 deaths per year in automobile crashes, and we need a child ag safety network??????????????????

An average of 100 people a year die from lightning strikes. To say this post is "overkill" is a gross understatement.

 

[tydp]

Paul, I understand what you're saying BUT, my goodness you scuba dive and ski which both are inherently dangerous. Farming in general, tractor work especially, is dangerous. I let my boy ride on the tractor (in the seat with me). Common sense is the best preventative.

 

[N80]

Common sense is the best preventative.

And yet a rare commodity.

 

[tydp]

And yet a rare commodity.

Agreed.

 

[Rara Avis]

Paul, I understand what you're saying BUT, my goodness you scuba dive and ski which both are inherently dangerous. Farming in general, tractor work especially, is dangerous. I let my boy ride on the tractor (in the seat with me). Common sense is the best preventative.

Yes, and when I dive I dive with a buddy and I don't dive with a single tank between us...which could be analgous to two on a tractor...

And when I ski...I don't jump off cliffs or tuck steep slopes or ski out-of-bounds...

And when we respond to emergencies from the fire station, we don't allow people to hang off the tailgate, like they did when I started in the fire service...why, because it is inherently UNSAFE...and that is very much similar to farming, in that, there is a saying in the Fire Service, "200 years of Tradition unimpeded by progress.."
Which is why we have NFPA, OSHA and IFSTA to try to keep us alive...

Well...I've done what I can...Like my grandfather used to have to remind me more than once...You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink...

BE SAFE OUT THERE

 

[N80]

But you do, in fact, jump from an aircraft and you do, in fact, go deep under water. I feel quite certain that more people die doing those activities than kids being killed from being a passenger on a tractor. Recreational scuba and sky diving are perfect examples of horrible risk benefit ratios. The risks are high (relative to not jumping out and not going under) and the benefit is......recreation.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking those activities. I think they are great. But you can't justify them based on risk benefit ratios any better than a farmer can justify having a child worker hitch a ride on the tractor.

And you are right, you can't make a horse drink. Each horse will decide when, where and how much to drink. We all have our own level of comfort. Some will be proved wrong, some will be proved right. Some will be wrong and never get hurt, some will be right and still die.......by being struck by debris from a disintegrating space shuttle.