Baker, R. H.

Stuckey, W. E.

English

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One-fourth of accident victims required hospitalization. Accidents to Farm People 29,361 Reasons for a Safety Program by R. H. Baker and W. E. Stuckey * A Concern: Accidents to farm people in Ohio. • ONE-SIXTH OF THE FARM FAMILIES IN OHIO HAD AN ACCI-DENT DURING 1957. • 88 percent of these accidents required a doctor's care while 25 percent required hospitalization. • 56, 052 days labor was hired to replace labor of injured persons. • 73 percent of the accidents occured to men and boys. • 25 percent of the accidents occurred in the home, 44 percent on the farm outside the home, and 31 percent while away from the farm. • 28 percent of the injuries resulted from a fall. • Farm machinery, including the tractor, was involved in 21 percent of the accidents while the auto and truck accounted for 8 percent. e FOR EVERY 68 NON-FATAL ACCIDENTS THERE WAS ONE FATAL ACCIDENT. •R. H. Baker is associate professor of agricultural economics and rural sociology, and W. E. Stuckey is exten-sion safety specialist at The Ohio State University. Accidents to Farm People in Ohio A Desire: These p ai nfu 1, costly, t i me consuming accidents can be reduced. It is the desire that everyfarm fam-ily in Ohio plan now to have an accident-free year. A Suggestion: The accident situation is one of our greatest social problems. Educational pro-grams are effective in re-Table 1. Accidents to Farm People in Oluo, 1957 Number of people who had accidents* Days lost due to accidents Days hired to replace lost labor Cost of accidents Doctor bills Drugs and medicine Hospital b!l.ls Hired help Total Per Acc1dent 29,361 418,923 56,052 $2,497, 339 $1,046,401 $ 44, 788 $1, 122, 676 $ 283,474 14.3 1. 9 $85.06 $35.64 $ 1.53 $38.24 $ 9. 65 *An accident was defined as any iniury to any person llving or working on a farm that required profes-sional medical care (doctor, hospital, nurse, x-ray) dr loss of 1/2 day or more of time from work or play. ducing accidents. Some farm groups are carrying on effective programs in safety education. Other groups have less extensive programs, and some groups have not yet started such programs. It is suggested that the information contained in this publication be studied by the membership of all farm groups. Members should then determine the course of action to reduce accidents. This information could be used as a basis for discussions, demonstrations, displays, talks, news releases, radio and TV programs, and many other types of programs. Many people should be involved in formulating any safety program. People who work on safety pro-jects are less likely to have accidents. As individuals we should inspect our farms for accident hazards and re-move or minimize all hazards found. What Type of lniuries? Table 2. Type of Injuries Occurring to Ohio Farm People, 1957 The most frequent in-juries were cuts, fractures, sprains, and bruises. These accounted for 85 percent of the accidents. C u t s were the most common injury. Type of InJury Number Percent Fifty-five percent of the accidents were listed as slight, 42 p er c en t as se-vere, 1-1/2 percent re-sulted in p er mane n t in-juries, and 1-1/2 percent were fatal. Cut Fracture Sprain Bruise Burn Infection Eye in.Jury Bite Poison Miscellaneous Total -3-9,274 31.6 6,515 22.2 4,841 16.5 4,388 15. 0 588 2.0 588 2.0 588 2.0 452 1,5 272 .9 1,855 6.3 29,361 100.0 What Were the People Doing? Approximately 70 percent of the accidents occurred while the people were working. Surprising as it may seem, nearly one-fourth of the work accidents happened off the farm. Another one-fourth of them were in the farm home. Farming is considered one of our most hazardous occupations. This con-cept can be supported by insurance rates and studies in other states. How-ever, it should be noted that in Ohio 84 percent as many farm people were hurt while off the farm as were hurt while performing farm work. Use a stepladder open and locked for reaching. Table 3. Where Accident Victims Wer e and What They Were Doing, Ohio Farm People, 1957 Where accident occurred What doing Number On farm In farm While away outside home home from farm Working 20, 675 10, 903 5, 067 4, 705 Playing 7, 238 1, 764 2, 126 3 , 348 Other 1, 448 91 271 1,086 Total 29,361 12,758 7, 464 9, 139 How Did the Accident Occur? Victims were thrown against objects, were caught in or between various things, were struck by falling or flying objects. Many fell either on the same level or from a different level, and some slipped. A smaller number were burned, had collisions, were shot with firearms or were stepped on by ani-mals. The relative frequency of how these accidents occurred is shown in Table 4. Table 4. - How Accidents Occurred to Ohio Farm People, 1957 How Number Percent How Number Percent Struck against 5, 519 18. 8 Lifting 633 2. 2 Caught in or between 4,614 15. 7 Collision 543 1. 8 Struck by falling or flying object 4,253 14. 5 Inhalation 181 . 6 Fall, from different level 4, 298 14. 6 Firearm 181 . 6 Stepped on by Fall, on same level 4, 072 13. 9 farm animal 136 . 5 Slip 2, 850 9. 7 Other 1, 448 4.9 Fire 633 2. 2 Total 29, 361 100. 0 -4-The misuse of farm machinery is costly in time, suffering and expense. What Things Were Involved? Table 5. There was a time when livestock, especially the horse, was a major con-tributing factor to accidents to farm people in Ohio. In 1957 more people were hurt with the automobile and farm truck than with all livestock combined, including the dog. Things Involved in Accidents to Misuse of the 200, 000 farm tractors, with all the machines that go with them, accounted for more than one-fifth of the total accidents. More than one-half as many injuries occurred with the wagon as with tractors. Injuries with wagons occurred as a result of falling from, or being run over by them or by being caught between the wagon and a building or tool. Hand tools including the saw, knife, shove 1, fork, ax, and drill were in-volved in another 12 percent of the acci-dents. As insignificant as they might seem, the lowly nail, icy walks, rickety lad-ders, dark stairs, and children's toys cannot be overlooked. These accounted for more than 3700 accidents. Table 5 indicates that a large num -ber of "other" things were involved in accidents to farm people. These in-clude such things as broken glass, pow-er lawn mowers, gates, stones, play-ground equipment, and holes in the ground. -5-Ohio Farm People, Things involved in accident Farm Machinery Tractor. Wagon. Elevator Mower Picker Combine Baler. Other machinery . Tools Saw. Knife . Fork, shovel or spade . Ax. Drill Other tools . Farm Animal Cow. Dog. Hog. Horse. Other animals Building ___ ---- ____ . - - _ - - - --Nail ·--·-----·---·----------Ice --·----------------------Ladder·--·-----------------. Stairs ------ ----- ___________ _ Auta -----------------------Truck __ ._. ____________ - - - - - -Tree -----------------------Toys ----·------------------Other --- --- - .. -- - . --- - -- - - - -TOTAL 1957 No. % 21.4 1,538 5.2 814 2.8 498 1. 7 407 1. 4 271 . 9 226 . 8 226 .8 2,307 7.8 12.0 498 1. 7 452 1. 5 317 1. 1 181 . 6 181 . 6 1, 900 6.5 7.8 724 2.5 543 1. 8 317 1. 1 271 .9 452 1. 5 1,402 4.8 995 3.4 905 3.1 724 2.5 724 2.5 1,674 5.7 769 2.6 679 2.3 407 1.4 8,959 30.5 29,361 100.0 Who Were Involved in Accidents? Men and boys, only 53 percent of our farm population, accounted for about three-fourths of the acci-dents. One-third of all persons in-jured were husbands between the ages of 25 and 64 years. (See Fig. 1.) Many people are of the op1n1on that children and oldsters are the most frequent accident victims. Fig. 2 indicates that those under 15 years of age account for about 30 percent of the farm population, and they had only 23 p e r c e n t of the HUSBANDS 38 5% SONS 29.1% accidents. On the average, the Fig. 1. Who Met With Accidents, farm people of Ohio had 34 acci- Ohio Farm People, 1957? dents per thousand people. Those under 5 years of age had only 14 accidents per thousand while those between 45 and 64 years experienced 50 accidents per thousand. The rate over 65 years was 38 accidents. Percent 30 ~--....... ! Farm Population Percent 25 ~ Farm Accident Percent 10 Under 5 5-14 15-24 AGE GROUP 25-44 45-64 Fig. 2. Percent of Farm Population and Farm People Having Accidents, by Age Groups, Ohio, 1957 -6-65 and over When Did the Accident Occur? About 60 percent of the acci-dents occurred in the afternoon and evening. This raises the question as to what effect fatigue has on frequency of accidents. As might be expected, the sum-mer months produced the most accidents. Long hours, pres-sure to get work done and work-ing under all types of conditions-all seem to have an influence on the frequency of accidents. Percent 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 J'FMAMJ" J"ASOND MONTH Flg. 3. Months Accidents Occurred Ohio Farm People, 1957 What Did These Accidents Cost? If we look at it only from a dollar and cent viewpoint, we see an annual accident cost of about $2, 500, 000. Eighty-eight percent of the persons who had accidents required the services of a doctor. The average doctor bill for those going to a doctor was $40. 65 (average all accidents $35. 64). Twenty-five percent required some hospitalization. One-third of those going to a hospital required only x-ray or emergency room attention. The re-maining two-thirds spent an average of 8. 7 days in the hospital (average all accidents 1. 5 days). The average hospital bill for those requiring hospitaliza-tion was $150. 40 (average all accidents $38. 24). In about 9 percent of the cases, labor had to be hired to replace the injured person. An average of three weeks of hired labor was necessary. This hired labor added an additional cost of $104. per accident requiring replacement labor (average all accidents $9. 65). In addition to the financial loss, these accidents caused pain, worry, and inconvenience as well as loss of time from work or play. In 76 percent of the cases some time was lost. It averaged 18. 7 days per loss-time accident (average all accidents 14. 3 days). Eighty-nine percent of the lost time was spent at home. Some people fail to appreciate the seriousness of the accident problem. They believe that accidents occur only to other people. Our studies have shown that in 1957 one of every six farm families, in Ohio, had an accident which required the care of a doctor or caused loss of a half day or more time from work or play. The accident situation is even more serious when we realize that one of 68 of these accidents was a fatal. In a lifetime of 60 years, a farm person in Ohio has one chance of 33 of meeting with a fatal accident. -7-How Was This Study Conducted? This study of accidents to farm people was made in Ohio in 1957. One sample county was cho-sen at random from each of eight groups of coun-ties having similar topographic and climatic con-ditions and following the same general type of farming. The eight counties chosen are shown on the map. Random groups of samples of ten farms!/in a block were selected in each county. About 29 percent of the farms in the eight counties were contacted four times, once every three months, by volunteer enumerators. These enumerators werefurnished complete in-structions at special training meetings. The first visits were made by 440 enumerators to 4125 farm Eight Sample Counties In Which State-Wide Farm Accident Study Was Conducted, 1957 families. A few of these enumerators, due to poor health or being called into the service, did not complete the study. But 405 enumerators completed four visits to 3914 farm families and secured all information about their accidents for the year. This sample constituted 2. 21 percent of the farms in the state of Ohio. The figures presented in this discussion are the results of the data from this sam-ple being expanded to the state as a whole. Acknowledgments: This study was made possible by the cooperation of the county Extension Service agents and the voluntary enumerators in the eight sample counties. Other cooperating groups included The Department of Agri-cultural Economics, The Ohio State University, and The Ohio Farm and Home Safety committee. Cover photo courtesy The National Safety Council. !!/Same definition of farm as used by U.S. Census. 10/58--SM The Ohio state University and U. S. Department of Agriculture cooperating. Agricultural Extension Service, W. B. Wood, director, Columbus 10, Ohio. Printed and distributed in furtherance of acts of May 8 and June 30, 1914. -8-

Accidents to Farm People. 29,361 Reasons for a Safety Program

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Accidents to Farm People. 29,361 Reasons for a Safety Program

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