FACTS

1. Timely maintenance programs keep equipment in good operating condition. It is the responsibility of machinery operators to recognize hazards and take the necessary steps to protect themselves and others.
2. Any exposed, rotating machine component is a potential wrap point. Injuries usually occur when loose clothing or long hair catch wrap around rotating shafts. Protruding shaft ends can be wrap points.
3. Crush points are created when two objects move toward each other, or when one object moves toward a stationary object. Crushing accidents often victimize a second person, during such operations as hitching.
4. Injuries occur when operators shut off equipment and attempt to clean or adjust a machine before components have completely stopped moving.
5. Farmers and agricultural workers are at risk of fatal or serious injury while operating or working with tractors, harvesters, sprayers, trucks, 2-wheel and 4-wheel motorbikes, farm implements and attachments.
6. Machinery that has hydraulic equipment can have extremely high energy as it is used to shift and support large loads. Serious crush injuries can result from normal movement of the hydraulic equipment and when the hydraulic systems fail.

STATS

• Data from the NTOF surveillance system indicates that at least 346 farm workers aged 16 or older died from farm-related entanglement injuries,112 of those deaths were caused by entanglement in PTO-driven drivelines and shafts of farm machinery.
• Employee exposure to unguarded or inadequately guarded machines is prevalent in many workplaces. Approximately 18,000 amputations, lacerations, crushing injuries, abrasions, and over 800 deaths per year. Amputation is one of the most severe and crippling types of injuries in the occupational workplace, and often results in permanent disability.
• Seventy-five percent (75%) of farm worker deaths in 2016 involved a vehicle.
• Farm machinery is associated with approximately 11% of traumatic deaths on farms
• Statistics show that farming equipment related accidents are responsible for 2,600 deaths and 230,000 disabilities every year.