Safety Campaign Raises Awareness of Tractor-Related Youth Injuries

Several farming groups have joined forced to raise awareness of tractor-related injuries involving children. The Childhood Agricultural Safety Network (CASN) is leading the campaign, distributing posters, setting up billboards, and launching commercials in an attempt to reduce the number youth injuries involving tractors.

Allowing your child to ride in your lap while you operate a tractor or some other piece of heavy farm machinery may seem harmless enough, but it can have deadly consequences. According to CASN, a child dies on the farm every three and a half days. What's even more shocking is that tractors are involved in 41% of farm-related fatalities involving children under the age of 15.

Youth injuries and deaths involving tractors are unfortunately an all-too-common scenario. The U.S. Labor Department was working tirelessly over the course of 2 years to raise the minimum age for paid farmers who operate tractors and heavy machinery to 16, but they eventually lost the battle due to criticism from the farming community. The Labor Department's intentions were in the right place, but it tackled a long-standing tradition where young children -- many of whom are under the age of 16 -- work long hours to assist their parents in the field.

But the lack of an age requirement for paid farm workers isn't the only contributing factor to youth deaths on the farm. Children of all ages are naturally attracted to heavy machines, as they want to know and understand how they work. It's not uncommon for parents to let their children sit in their lap while they operate a tractor. In most cases, this is a harmless activity that both the child and parent will enjoy; however, it's those rare occasions that can lead to severe injury or even death, and that's exactly the message being conveyed in CASN's safety awareness campaign.

"The research tells us that children under 14 years of age are not developmentally ready to operate tractors. They don’t have the physical reach or the strength. They don’t have the cognitive abilities. They don’t even have the visual field that allows them to see well enough to operate a tractor," said Marsha Salzwedel, an agricultural youth safety specialist with the National Children’s Center for Rural and Agricultural Health and Safety.

So, when is a child old enough to hop behind the wheel of a tractor? According to the National Farm Medicine Center, 14 is the magic number. The National Farm Medicine Center is in the midst of a campaign that encourages parents to wait until their children are 14 years of age before placing them behind the wheel of a tractor.