Afew weeks ago I watched in horror as my husband was attacked and rolled by a cow. It was unexpected in our herd, but a new cow in a new place can result in some fear. It is in those moments when time stands still and you fail to believe your eyes. The same week in our community, a neighbour was injured by a bull and another fell with serious injuries. It is time again to talk about farm safety.
When my mother was posted at her first permanent job as a registered nurse in Edmonton, she was caring for a young boy who was kicked in the head by a stallion. Being a city girl, this had a great impact on her and she has been terrified of horses her entire life. As a child and still to this day, I have no fear of livestock and most certainly not of horses. I think now of her dread each morning as I tore out of the house and jumped on any old steed to spend the day galloping recklessly in the fields. I most certainly had my share of spills and hurts, and some minor damage to hips, but nothing that stopped me from a normal life, unlike the little boy in the hospital.
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Like all accidents, farm accidents are quick and unexpected. I have friends and acquaintances who are missing fingers, arms, legs or other body parts from farm accidents. Some hurt deeply inside, are paralyzed or burdened by poverty because they no longer can work.
Farm accidents are the second-biggest killer next to mining in Canada, and unfortunately largely ignored. As our physicians plead for laws to forbid minors on quads and for use of helmets when riding horses, the government bends to the wishes of big industry at the cost of lives and family fiscal security. Some farm equipment is still designed without extensive safeguards. In addition, the government of Alberta has failed to acknowledge that farmers and farm workers need protection.
We cannot live the life of a farmer or farming family without risk. It is inherent in our industry and so all we can do is mitigate it. I often say that risk management is not about futures and options; it is about insurance, guards on PTOs, helmets and zones such as grain storage, where children are not allowed.
I recall a letter from a farmer who watched his boy get bucked off in a pen of cattle. The little fellow hit the ground so hard his helmet cracked, but his head did not. That dad is forever appreciative of the untraditional suggestion that farm kids wear head protection.
I asked Lyndon Carlson, director Canadian Centre for Health and Safety in Agriculture, to give me one take-home message on farm safety. His answer surprised me. He used the analogy of the city yard. City yards are fenced to keep children in and trouble out. Why then, he pondered, are country yards an expanse of land without barrier and without signal to the child that there are limits for exploration?
His reasons were well founded. Farm children are sometimes accidentally run over by parents or grandparents. The grief and emotional toll for these families is almost unimaginable. My heart goes out to them and there is no fault here, just the unknown action of a child who was a second ago secure behind the front door. The discussion allowed me to look at our yard through a different set of eyes and imagine the chaos of five grandchildren going in and out the door (a hundred times a day as they tend to do) without the visual barrier between them and the parking area. This year we are changing our yard.
Post-accident support
I was speaking about farm safety with David Sprague, CEO Ag for Life. In the discussion I wanted to make the point that if we take the situation where a family member has been lost or injured, after the initial medical attention, there is little in the way of support networks. How do widows manage 500 cows with a house full of children? How does a husband suddenly learn to cook when his wife has suddenly passed in a tractor rollover?
And more importantly — what financial, personal and emotional support is available to them? Remember, the accident often occurs at home and that means living with some sort of reminder every day. Prevention and information about prevention is a must but until we are willing to shift the focus to a complete model that includes post-traumatic support, we have failed in helping farm families find balance.
The Farm Safety Advisory Council keeps the information in front of the agriculture minister but we have seen little commitment. In consultation with Alberta farmers we could prevent the loss of another life and have programs in place to ensure emotional support and financial security. Today, it is up to farmers to cover themselves and their workers, including family members and to get the message out.
Focusing on children, the Alberta Farm Safety Centre speaks to tens of thousands of children in Alberta every year helping them to identify and reduce the risk on the farm. We need more. More open discussion on the really tough subject of farm safety, more support for families to handle their changes or loss, more protection for farmers and farm workers at a reasonable cost and more funding from this government. It is time for all groups to be at the kitchen table.
