The case could also affect title to property along the banks of streams and lakes. OALF is raising money to support the defense. With fall work preparing fields for seeding winter wheat and harvesting potatoes and sugar beets still ahead for many growers across Idaho, National Farm Safety and Health Week Sept. 19 to 25 carries an important message, Karsky said. Karsky earlier analyzed a total of 208 newspaper reports of Idaho agricultural fatalities from 1979 to 1997. National Safety Council statistics show tractor deaths declining as safety programs take effect, Karsky said.
Rollovers are the most frequent cause of tractor fatalities.
A campaign by tractor manufacturers and dealers to outfit tractors with rollover protection structures, ROPS, reduced the death toll. ROPS have been available on all new tractors for nearly three decades, but nearly a third of tractors in use still do not have them, Karsky said. Dealers have been making ROPS available for minimal or no profit. A new safety initiative, the North American Guidelines for Children's Agricultural Tasks, aims at reducing the number of children injured in farm accidents. The National Children's Center for Rural and Agricultural Safety and Health earlier this summer published the guidelines to help farm families match jobs to children's developmental stages.