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Show Keep children off Farm Machinery A puzzling kind of tragedy occurs with numbing consistency. con-sistency. It is the accident that involves a child as an extra rider on farm equipment, says Lynn Esplin, USU extension agent. "Such accidents are bewildering because little ones don't have any business on farm machinery, and people don't seem to realize how risky it is. Having a small child along on farm machinery is dangerous and represents one of the saddest and most preventable of all farm accident hazards," stated Paul Edmunds, Extension farm safety specialist, Utah State University. Accident statistics indicate in-dicate that the majority of extra rider fatalities are children below 15 years of age. A large share of them are pre-schoolers. It's particularly important to keep children off and away from machinery during work operations. A fall could easily be fatal. Unwary children also may get tangled in revolving shafts or mangled by other moving machinery parts. They may slip and get nasty cuts and bruises while getting off and on machinery. To encourage safety on farm equipment, the Cooperative Extension Service is offering "No Rider" decals to all interested in-terested farmers. For a limited quantity, call your local County Extension Agent at 586-8132. |