Farm safety quick hits: Create a rescue plan; manure pit accidents; women in ag; ATV safety; mental health first aid

Farming comes with a distinct set of dangers and demands. Sound planning, accident prevention and know-how can improve measures to keep farm workers safe, reports Lisa Foust Prater of Successful Farming. Prater also looks at the medical needs of women in agriculture and mental health for everyone who works the land.

Have a rescue plan before entering a silo, grain bin, manure pit or other confined space. The Department of Agriculture recommends identifying confined spaces on your farm and taking steps to prevent accidental entry. "Workers who do enter must receive specific training and have a permit to enter."

Dirty and deadly, take extra care around manure pits.
(Photo via Successful Farming)

Manure pits are dangerous. "Working in a manure pit is one of the dirtiest jobs on the farm, and it's also one of the deadliest. The majority of people who are overcome by the gases in a storage pit or lagoon do not live to tell the tale. . . . The most common task leading up to these injuries or fatalities in 2022 was performing maintenance tasks in or around manure storage structures, including pump repairs. This is true with all cases documented since 1975."

Whether you're delivering cookies to the back forty or hauling feed, ATVs are speedy, farm-friendly vehicles. Curt Porterfield, health and safety training coordinator at Virginia Tech, offers these tips to keep ATV riding safe: Recognize that ATVs can be deadly, the common hazards associated with their use, and your skill levels. Evaluate your equipment, terrain, environment, and load. Control and maintain your ATV properly. . . .and control your ride by driving safely.

Almost a third of all American farmers are women.
(Photo via Successful Farming)

The number of women in agriculture has increased, but information studies have yet to keep pace with the change. "Despite the fact that 31% of all American farmers are women, health and safety education for the agricultural population is most often aimed at men. . . . Women on the farm fill more roles than ever before – or are at least being publicly recognized for filling these roles – including primary operator, mother, wife, ag implement salesperson, and large animal veterinarian, to name a few. Specific areas of risk include heart disease, diabetes, breast cancer, broken bones and chronic pain."

Farming offers many benefits, but mental health often takes a back seat to getting the work done, which can ultimately cause a breakdown. "Becoming trained in mental health first aid allows you to stand in the gap of a crisis until professional help arrives. . . . If the emergency is someone having an anxiety attack, dealing with an opioid addiction, or contemplating suicide, having someone available who knows what to do can mean the difference between life and death."

Study: Surge in child ATV injuries likely linked to pandemic

An increase in all-terrain-vehicle injuries among children is likely linked to more of them being out of school during the pandemic, according to a study by the Injury Free Coalition for Kids.

Dr. Charles Jennissen, a pediatric emergency physician and University of Iowa professor who led the study, compared ATV injuries during the pandemic to a year ago. “Clearly, we are seeing more injuries, including of ATVs,” Jennissen told the National Children's Center for Rural and Agricultural Health and Safety. "Overall injuries are probably four to five times higher because many don’t go to the ER, he added. In the US, about 40,000 children under the age of 16 are treated in emergency departments for ATV-related injuries each year, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics."

For information about child ATV accidents in your area, check AgInjuryNews.org, a project launched by the NCCRAHS and the Marshfield Clinic Research Institute. The open-access online database catalogs agricultural injury reports, including ATV accidents, from news stories and other sources.

Part of the problem, Jennissen said, is that younger children are allowed to drive ATVs, even though the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that only people ages 16 and older operate them. “More kids in the U.S. under 16 die from ATVs than bicycle crashes," Jennissen told NCCRAHS. "We talk a lot about bicycle safety for kids, but this is a bigger killer, and we need to protect our children."

Boys, 3 and 5, die in unsupervised ATV accident on rural road; safety, education should be promoted

Now that spring is here and schools will soon begin letting out for summer vacation, it might be a good time to remind readers of the dangers of riding ATVs and the precautions that should be taken to ensure that riders of all ages remain safe.

Two Northern California boys, ages 3 and 5, were killed on Sunday when an ATV they were riding alone and unsupervised on a rural road, drove into a pond, Gus Thomson reports for the Auburn Journal.

Last year 508 ATV fatalities were recorded, and 93—or 18 percent—involved children under 16, and 46—or 9 percent—involved children under the age of 12, says the Consumer Federation of America. Most of the 508 fatalities took place on roads, where dangers are increased because of vehicular traffic. Many riders also have not received training, don't wear a helmet, have too many people riding the vehicle or are on an ATV that's the wrong size. (Read more) (Insurance Institute for Highway Safety map: ATV deaths on public roads from 2007-11)

Minneapolis paper's 'Risky Riding' series examines dangers of children riding ATVs

ATVs are a common sight in rural areas—often used for work and recreation—but almost as common are accidents, often involving young riders going too fast, not wearing a helmet, riding the wrong-sized vehicle, drinking and driving or wandering too close to traffic. (Star Tribune photo by Jim Gehrz: Owen Farmer, 11, of Faribault, Minn., driving through a safety obstacle course)

Despite calls from federal regulators, doctors and even many within the ATV industry that only adults should be allowed to ride, "40 states have laws and rules allowing children younger than 16 to drive ATVs designed for adults," and 19 have no age limit, Jeffrey Meitrodt and Mike Hughlett report for the Star Tribune in Part 2 of a five-part series called "Risky Riding."

In Minnesota, lawmakers dropped the age limit from 16 to 12 for driving adult ATVs and require children to take a training class, Meitrodt and Hughlett write. "Minnesota state Rep. Tom Hackbarth, a Republican who co-sponsored the state’s current ATV regulations, contends that children will ride adult ATVs, regardless of the law or ATV warning labels." Hackbarth says required safety training and parental supervision are the best ways to protect children.

But safety training is something that is lacking, Meitrodt and Hughlett write. The Star Tribune examined 139 ATV accidents involving youth, finding that only 17 had gone through safety training. Overall, there are an estimated 10.7 million vehicles in the U.S., according to data from 2011. (Read more) To read Part 1 of the series, click here.

ATV accidents, casualties remain a concern in rural America; safety precautions being ignored

All-terrain vehicles are a common sight in rural areas—often used for work and recreation—and almost as common are ATV accidents resulting in serious injuries or death. Oftentimes the accidents occur because riders have not received training, don't wear a helmet, have too many people riding the vehicle, are on an ATV that's the wrong size for them or wander out onto paved roads into vehicular traffic, reports KKCO 11 News in Grand Junction, Colo. (WFMJ 21 News photo: A teen was injured on Tuesday in an ATV accident in Shenango Township, Pennsylvania)

A quick Google search results in a number of ATV accidents, including: two people crashing into a pickup truck in Gallitzin, Pa.; a woman and a child injured in New Bloomfield, Pa.; a Huntingburg, Ind. teen dying in a crash; a Shaler, Pa. teen recovering from a broken spine; a Great Falls, Mont. man dying in a rollover; and a 4-year-old dying in Butler County, Pennsylvania.

In 2013, Missouri had 300 injuries involving ATV riders and 30 deaths, Hope Kirwan reports for KBIA 91.3 in Columbia. "According to a 2010 study by researchers at John Hopkins Center for Surgical Trials and Outcomes Research, riders involved in ATV accidents are more likely to die or have more severe injuries than riders involved in motorcycle crashes."

One of the main source of accidents is when ATV riders go onto public roads, which is illegal in Missouri unless it's for agricultural work, Kirwin writes. Capt. Jay Hull of the Missouri State Highway Patrol told Kirwin, “Any time you start mixing off-road vehicles with passenger vehicles or pick-up trucks and things like that on a highway, you're going to see some traffic crashes. They're a little harder to control,  and there's just a lot of traffic out there and they're difficult to see.” (Read more)

In 2011 an estimated 115,000 people were treated in U.S. emergency rooms for ATV-related injuries, says ATV Safety.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety released a report in December 2013 that said that from 2007-11, the most recent years data was available, 1,701 ATV riders died in crashes on public roads in the U.S. More than 86 percent of the accidents took place in rural areas or rural states, with about half of the casualties being teenagers. Only 13 percent of drivers and 6 percent of passengers were wearing helmets, 43 percent of drivers killed were legally drunk and speeding was reported as a factor in 42 percent of single-vehicle accidents and 19 percent of multi-vehicle crashes.

Kentucky had the most ATV casualties from 2007-11, with 122, the report says. Pennsylvania had 97, West Virginia 96, Texas 95, California 79 and Florida 74. Of all casualties nationally, 25.9 percent involved people ages 20-29.

National forests in Virginia crack down on mud-slinging four-wheelers

National forests in Virginia are cracking down on "mud-bogging," a four-wheeling sport that involves souped-up vehicles through mudholes, thanks to the efforts of one U.S. Forest Service law enforcement official. John Price and another officer have caught almost 80 people in the act since last November in the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests.

Mud-bogging tears up the ground, causing significant ecological damage to protect areas. In an area cultivated by the Forest Service to attract wildlife, four-wheelers started showing up in March. "They veered off the road, plowed through the creek bed and did what Price calls 'Dukes of Hazzard doughnuts' in meadow," Laurence Hammack of The Roanoke Times writes in a long, detailed story.

Price says that once an area has been used by mud-bogging for the first time, more feel free to use the area. When writing a ticket to an 18-year-old he caught one evening, the young man explained he thought it was legal, since there was a mudhole already there. "It's up here because people have been taking their Jeeps and coming up here and raising Cain, tearing it all to pieces. That's why it's up here," Price said. "They come up here and rip it and tear it and spin it to death." (Read more)

Ban on road construction in national forests is narrowed to only 10 Western states

The ban on creating new roads in national forests, enacted during the Clinton administration, has been narrowed by a federal court decision. The ban now affects only a fourth of the states initially affected.

The 2001 "Roadless Rule" has been subject to judicial tug-of-war over the past few years. the Bush administration overturned the decision in 2005. Judge Elizabeth Laporte invalidated that repeal in 2006, after challenges from environmental groups. But another federal judge invalidated the original rule this August, says a recent Associated Press article.

In an attempt to reconcile the two rulings, Laporte reduced the scope of her decision. While the measure initially covered national forests in almost 40 states, it now only applies to 10 western states. (Read more)

Kentucky's lieutenant governor heartily endorses mountaintop-removal strip mining for coal

Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear has called for dialogue on how to mitigate the impacts of mountaintop-removal coal mining, and some other Democrats want to rein in the practice or largely outlaw it. But Lt. Gov. Daniel Mongiardo, whom Beshear chose as his running mate, said in an Appalachian coalfield speech last night that "I see it as a positive," reports the Appalachian News-Express of Pikeville. (State photo shows Mongiardo signing "Pledge to Protect Nature" at 2008 Arbor Day ceremony in state Capitol)

In a speech to an athletic banquet in Pikeville, "Mongiardo ... was very vocal about his support of mountaintop-removal mining, stating that we need flat land in order to develop into a national leader" in energy development, Justin Holbrook writes, quoting the lieutenant governor, a physician and former state senator from Hazard, another coalfield town:

“A lot of people look at mountaintop removal as a negative, but I see it as a positive. We need to stop apologizing for coal. We don’t want to defend mountaintop removal, but I want us to promote mountain top removal, because we need flat land. We cannot have economic expansion without places to do things and part of mountaintop removal is for places like hospitals, airports and different type of merchants.”

Mongiardo then switched to his favorite topic of late, adventure tourism: "We can put people on horseback, mountain bikes, foot and four-wheelers in Eastern Kentucky, which as you and I know, is one of the most beautiful areas in this country. There is no place prettier than going to the top of the hills and looking out across Eastern Kentucky. I can't wait for people from across the world to come and see what natural resources we have, and it’s not in spite of coal but because of coal." (Read more)

Mongiardo's remarks brought an e-mail blast from Appalachian lawyer and coal-industry watchdog Tony Oppegard: "Mongiardo is an intelligent man. Yes, Eastern Kentucky is one of the most beautiful places in the world. But if MTR mining continues, does he really believe that tourists are going to flock to eastern Kentucky to look at our once-beautiful but now devastated mountains that resemble moonscapes? He must be out of his mind."

Oppegard didn't mention other arguments against many huge mountaintop-removal and "area" mines, which have similar impacts: They are too far from infrastructure to be economically developed; the amount of developable land being created is more than the region can ever use; the typical reclamation into grassland destroys forever a forest environment that has one of the world's highest levels of biodiversity; valley fills bury headwater streams and watercourses forever; and stream sedimentation from mining creates water-pollution and flooding problems downstream. For the other side of the story, from the Kentucky Coal Association, click here.

Proposal to close off-road trails in western Montana national forest sparks unruly public hearing

Debate over the environment often inspires emotional responses on both sides. In the case of Bitterroot National Forest in western Montana, the talk at a public hearing went too far. U.S. Forest Service officials held a meeting Jan. 10 in Darby, Mont., to allow public comment on proposals to change the forest's travel management plan, which included the closing of trails that allowed ATVs and other motorized recereation. A crowd 0f more than 200 turned out — with the majority in favor pro-motorized recreation — and things got out of hand, reports Perry Backus of The Missoulian.

"The Bitterroot National Forest abruptly canceled a public meeting in Stevensville on updating its travel management plan following a crowded and sometimes unruly meeting on the same topic the night before in Darby," Backus wrote. "People cursed during the Darby meeting, and the U.S. Forest Service is following up on reports that a man suggested someone 'put a bullet in her head' as a woman spoke."
People were "aggressive, belligerent and angry. ... The 'f-word' was used more than once in comments," Friends of Bitterroot President Jim Miller told Backus. Miller also said it was the "ugliest meeting" he had attended. While Dan Thompson of the Ravalli County Off-Road Users Association agreed some comments were inappropriate, he said it was important for motorized recreationists to "break up that cozy little club." The next meeting on the subject is tomorrow at the Bitterroot River Inn in Hamilton. (Read more)

ATV enthusiasts want Appalachian regional system

Building trails for all-terrain vehicles in national forests and other public areas would attract adventure tourism and reduce ATV-caused erosion and other damage to natural areas, like that shown in the photo by Richard Jessee of The Coalfield Progress of Norton, Va., according to advocates of a trail system in the Appalachian Mountains of Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia.

Jack McClanahan of Big Stone Gap, Va., told Wise County supervisors last week that "plans are in motion for Southwest Virginia legislators to introduce General Assembly legislation that would create an authority to oversee a proposed system of trails tailor-made for each recreational use," reports Jodi Deal in the Progress. “If ATV trails are established, it would take a lot of pressure off of nature trails,” McClanahan told the supervisors. “We can’t just turn our back on ATVs and hope they go away. We can regulate them.”

"According to McClanahan, a similar project in West Virginia, the Hatfield and McCoy Regional Recreation Authority, has drawn plenty of people and money into the counties it covers. . . . Those with specialized hobbies will pay top dollar for a good trail experience, McClanahan added, noting that a friend who rents horses and mountain bikes to trail enthusiasts estimates that mountain bikers spend about $300 per day when visiting a destination.

In Harlan County, Kentucky, where ATV tourism is popular and a regional trail system is also planned, "an enthusiast was recently asked to guide a group of 14 tourists from Vermont around his hometown hills," Deal reports, citing McClanahan. "Each tourist paid $50 for the 12-hour trip, he added." (Read more; subscription required) For a recent Rural Blog item on ATV damage to national forests and other federal land in the West, click here.

All-terrain vehicles damaging national forests

"Federally owned lands are rapidly being transformed into the new playgrounds — and battlegrounds — of the American West. Outdoor enthusiasts are flocking in record numbers to lesser-known forests, deserts and mountains, where the rules of use have been lax and enforcement infrequent," Felicity Barringer and William Yardley report for The New York Times.

"The federal government has been struggling to come up with plans to accommodate the growing numbers of off-highway vehicles — mostly with proposed maps directing them toward designated trails — but all-terrain-vehicle users have started formidable lobbying campaigns when favorite trails have been left off the maps. Even with the plans, federal officials describe an almost impossible enforcement situation because the government does not begin to have the manpower to deal with those who will not follow the rules."

From Durango, Colo., the writers add, "The temptation to go off-trail, legally or not, comes from the desire for variety, federal land managers say. 'The more a route is used, the less challenging it becomes,' said Mark Stiles, the San Juan [National] Forest supervisor. 'You end up getting lots of little spurs off the main route.' Even a few errant riders, he said, 'can do a lot of damage.'" (Read more)

Paper mills long gone, town in northern N. H. banks on prison, ATV park for economic revival

In northern New Hampshire. the town of Berlin once relied on paper mills, now long gone. "Plagued by high unemployment, vacant buildings and a recent string of fires, Berlin (pronounced BUR-lin) is trying to reinvent itself, betting that a new 1,280-bed federal prison and New England’s first all-terrain vehicle park will be the economic shot in the arm it desperately needs," Katie Zezima wites in The New York Times today.

State and federal prisons (Berlin's will be the latter) have become an important element in the rural economy, and ATV tourism is becoming more and more popular in mountainous areas. "But there is concern about the direction the city is taking. Berlin already has a state prison, and there is opposition to the federal prison," Zezima writes. "A more controversial but much smaller project is a proposal to build a 50-megawatt power plant that would run on wood chips on a mill site in downtown Berlin."

The ATV park will cover 7,500 acres and "is expected to hold about 136 miles of trail and numerous campgrounds when it is completed in the next five years. About 20 miles are open now," Zezima writes. The state bought the land from a timber company for $2.1 million and projects the park's annual revenue will be almost $700,000. “For the first time in years there’s hope,” said Mark Belanger, manager of the Berlin office of the New Hampshire Department of Employment, told the Times. (Read more)

Kentucky county on edge of Cumberland Plateau rejects idea of allowing ATVs on public roads

An ordinance to allow all-terrain vehicles on public roads, which got national attention when introduced in Wayne County, Kentucky, last month, died at this week's meeting of the county Fiscal Court when even the member who introduced it declined to vote for it on second reading. ATVs are highly popular in the county, where the rugged western edge of the Cumberland Plateau meets the Tennessee border.

"District Two Magistrate Darrell Dishman, who originally brought the petition to the court asking that ATV's be allowed to travel on county roads in order to reach off-road trails, said he was opposed to the ordinance because he did not want to burden riders with purchasing liability insurance," Melodie Jewell Phelps reports in this week's Wayne County Outlook. "District Three Magistrate Dale Vaughn said he was opposed to this ordinance from the first day he learned about it. But he said he wanted to keep and open mind and listen to those who voiced an opinion [at a recent public hearing]. With Kentucky leading the nation in ATV deaths right now, Vaughn said he was afraid the numbers would skyrocket." (Read more)

About those names: As non-Kentuckians may have guessed, a fiscal court is the state's version of a county commission. The name goes back to the days when magistrates (still "justices of the peace" in the state constitution) had both budgetary and judicial powers. But it's more accurate nomenclature than in Louisiana, where the county legislative body is the Police Court. Still, when it comes to such names, we like a little color and thus don't care for a recent change in Tennessee, where the official name is Legislative Body. Ugh. And a persnal note on newspaper nomenclature: I've always liked the name of the Outlook, against which I competed briefly 32 years ago. A newspaper ought to give readers an idea, at least implicit, of the outlook for their community. The name is most popular among papers in Kentucky, site of three of the 13 weekly Outlooks in the United States. Washington and Ohio each have two. Only one U.S. daily bears the name, the Alexander City (La.) Outlook. --Al Cross, director, Institute for Rural Journalism & Community Issues

All-terrain vehicles, now integrated into the rural landscape, pose serious risks for children

DeKain Abnee, 10, talks to his brother, 12-year-old Jaiden Willoughby, who sits on the all-terrain vehicle Jaiden was driving when it wrecked, sending him to a hospital for brain surgery. His parents "recently requested an interview with the media," reports Jim Warren of the Lexington Herald-Leader. "They said they wanted to speak out about the potential dangers of ATVs, which have killed at least 17 people and injured 129 so far this year in Kentucky, and warn parents to take precautions. ... "ATVs have become an integral part of the landscape and culture all across much of rural Kentucky," and many other states, we hasten to add.

Warren developed the story after attending a seminar on agriculture and child safety sponsored by the National Farm Medicine Center and the National Children’s Center for Rural and Agricultural Health and Safety at the Marshfield Clinic Research Foundation in Wisconsin, and the College of Public Health and the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues at the University of Kentucky.

In a companion story, Warren reports, "Although ATV injuries and fatalities in rural Kentucky have received wide press coverage in recent years, agricultural experts say they represent only part of the picture when it comes to health threats for youngsters on the state's farms. . . . Farm youngsters traditionally perform tasks and handle responsibilities that, in other settings, would be considered strictly off limits, says Robert McKnight, director of the Southeast Center for Agricultural Health and Injury Prevention" at UK.

"We wouldn't consider it an acceptable risk for children to be running around on an assembly line floor, or working around a diesel locomotive switching yard," McKnight told Warren. "But traditionally we've found it acceptable that children on the farm can do tasks around heavy machinery, large animals and potentially toxic chemicals." (Read more) (Herald-Leader photo by Charles Bertram)