FACTS

Accidents Caused by Farming Near Power Lines

1. If farm equipment or machinery comes into contact with overhead power lines, the electricity can lead to severe injury or death to anyone in contact with it.
2. Accidents can occur when large farm machinery, such as tractors, combines, or tall equipment, come too close to power lines or when operators fail to notice their proximity.
3. Falling branches or trees can bring down the power lines, causing power outages, and property damage, and posing a threat to farm workers and the general public.
4. If power lines are damaged or short-circuited due to farming activities, they can spark fires, especially during dry or windy conditions.
5. If there are low-hanging overhead power lines on the farm, workers or equipment operators may accidentally get entangled with the wires while working, leading to injuries or falls.
6. While not directly an accident, power lines’ presence can affect crop growth and yield in the immediate vicinity.
7. Accidents may also occur indirectly due to restrictions on land use imposed by utility companies. Limitations on building structures, planting certain crops, or carrying out specific activities may affect the farm’s productivity and profitability.

STATS

• The Canadian Agricultural Safety Program reports an average of 114 people killed and another 1,499 seriously injured in farm-related accidents each year.
• Machinery-power line incidents up 57 percent in Manitoba. In 2020, there were 188 cases where a cultivator, seeder or another implement crashed into a pole or snagged a wire somewhere in the province.
• The Energy Networks Association, says one or two people die each year from electrocution caused by touching power lines with machinery.
• Every year farmers are injured or killed in electricity-related accidents. According to the National Ag Safety Database, every year 62 farm workers in the United States are electrocuted. To raise an additional cause for concern, 3.6% of deaths among youth under 20 years of age are caused by electrocution.
• 38% of all electrically related workplace fatalities were caused by overhead power lines. In the majority of these cases, fatalities occurred in occupations with little to no electrical safety training.
• Contact with overhead power lines is the leading cause of electrical fatalities for agricultural workers. Of the 1,001 reported power line contact incidents, nearly 70% resulted in death.