Nearly everyone involved in agriculture has first-hand knowledge of a family member or friend involved in a farm accident. But Dr. Barbara Lee, senior research scientist at Marshfield Clinic Research Institute, believes the term “accident” isn’t accurate. She encourages the use of “incident” instead – especially when a child is involved.
“The word ‘accident’ is a legal term,” said Lee. “It’s an unexpected, usually sudden, event that occurs without intention or volition, although sometimes through carelessness, unawareness or ignorance or a combination of causes.”
To further make the point of not referring to events as “unpreventable accidents or events,” Lee said most deaths that occur on farms are steeped in tradition. The child is “under the supervision of an adult,” usually a father or grandfather.
“It’s easier to bury a tradition than it is to bury a child,” said Lee, referencing a campaign to keep children safe on farms. “We know a child falling off a tractor is not an accident – it’s totally predictable and preventable.”
In 1987, an ag reporter stated, “We kill too many farm kids.” Lee believes this was the beginning of a movement to confront unsafe traditions and challenge the belief that child farm injuries were just a part of farming.
About 75 years ago, leaders and influencers in public health, transportation and occupational safety acknowledged concerns with using the word accident and began replacing it in official reports.
“By removing the term ‘accident,’ they could put more focus on roadway safety, constructing roads and putting more barriers up,” she said. “Physical structures were changed because they were eliminating the word accident.”
About 40 years ago, public health leaders recommended intentional elimination of the term accident.
By 1990, ag safety groups were determined to change terminology. But agriculture is still behind other occupations and disciplines. “This is especially noticeable in reports from first responders and people who investigate injury events,” said Lee. “They typically use the word ‘accident’ because they don’t know what else to use. But the preferred agricultural descriptions are ‘fatal, non-fatal, traumatic injury.’ If it’s an incident such as a tractor rollover, rather than saying it’s an accident, we say it’s a tractor rollover.”
The word accident is used more frequently when the injury victim is a child. “We speculate that first responders and reporters react more sympathetically if a child is injured,” said Lee. “Many times, the responder is local, might know the family and might be parents themselves. This affects the person responding and how they interpret the event. They don’t want to blame the responsible adult knowing he or she is feeling shame, guilt and remorse.”
Equipment operators on farms should not allow any extra passengers in equipment, and children should not be allowed in barns or outdoor areas where equipment is in use. Photo by Sally Colby
Lee described a multi-generational dairy farm with a history of “accidents.” The parents had five sons, ages 1 to 12. The mother worked evenings off the farm and the father cared for the five boys. The children all enjoyed helping with farm chores and learned to operate equipment at an early age. In 2015, the six-year-old boy was driving a skid steer, ran into his brother and was hurt. Two years later, the five-year-old was walking next to the skid steer and suffered a severe, permanent degloving injury of his leg when he slipped into the hydraulics of the skid steer. The boy spent four months hospitalized and dealt with infections and other issues.
“The New York Times got wind of the story of this family when the boy was in the hospital,” said Lee. “They interviewed the family and found it fascinating that these kids were all healthy and working on the farm. The parents were interviewed and said ‘We can’t afford to farm without our kids as our workers.’”
On the same family farm, the father was using the skid steer that had injured two of his boys to clear manure in the barn. His two-year-old son was sitting on his lap while he was working. The front guard was missing, and when he lowered the crossbar, it crushed the young boy’s head. The boy was airlifted to a hospital where he later died.
The father was beside himself and said, “I don’t know why these accidents happen to our family.” He told the deputy, “I guess I should have secured him into the skid steer while I was working.”
“They were still thinking those were accidents and not thinking about child safety principles,” said Lee.
In 2021, the investigation initially ruled the death of the two-year-old an accident, but a deputy sheriff who had a background in farming and knew the family realized too many “accidents” happened on that farm.
After further investigation, the father was charged with second degree reckless homicide and the skid steer was removed from the farm. The district attorney, who was a farm parent, stated that it was difficult to press such charges but believed it was her job to protect children – not protect the farm.
The father was sentenced to one-year probation while awaiting trial. Two months later, the parents were away and the four remaining sons were left alone on the farm. The barn burned down. Again, the parents wondered why they had so many “accidents.”
As the case wrapped up several months ago, the father pleaded no contest to child neglect and was charged with a Class D felony. Lee said the goal wasn’t jail time, which wouldn’t accomplish anything – the goal was to protect kids and make the farm safer.
His penalty was paying court costs plus completing a skid steer safety course, child farm safety training and a minimum of 10 hours community service speaking about his child’s death and how it could have been prevented.
“This is a case where if someone hadn’t said something,” said Lee, “we wouldn’t have come to a resolution that offers opportunity for things to be safer for the remaining children on the farm.”
When farm incidents occur, there’s typically an outpouring of support on social media. “We see people supporting the parents,” said Lee. “They use social media to support family farming.” However, there are often unsafe suggestions about what to do, and in general, social media continues the notion that these are accidents and “accidents happen.”
“We know we can influence someone’s perspective of an event,” said Lee. “Words matter, and we all play a part in a terminology shift. The most powerful strategy is elimination of the hazard, and for children, that means keeping children out of a farm work site.”
by Sally Colby
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