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On-farm child safety checklist for parents

A checklist for parents to help safeguard their kids from injury on the farm has been released.

The list, by the National Children’s Center for Rural and Agricultural Health and Safety, poses 32 questions for farm parents and suggests remedies when risks are identified. “A lot of those things don’t cost any money for them to do them. So, it’s a great way for them to be able to check their farm over and check some of their practices on the farm to safeguard the kids,” says Marsha Salzwedel, a youth safety specialist with the center. She tells Brownfield Ag News one of the most important questions on the checklist is ‘Do adults model safe behavior around children and youth on the farm?’

“We know just from experience and we also know that the studies have proven this – kids do what the parents do. And, so, when those kids see dad get on the tractor and they see dad click that seatbelt every time he gets on it, when they get to the age where they can drive that tractor they’re going to get on that tractor and they’re going to click that seatbelt.”

Statistics show one child is killed on a farm in the U.S. every THREE days and 33 children are injured EVERY day on farms.

AUDIO: Marsha Salzwedel~