Teenage Farm Worker Dies during Silage Defacer Entanglement

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  New York State Fatality Assessment & Control Evaluation Program (NY FACE) ; New York (State). Department of Health ; New York (State). Bureau of Occupational Health
• Description:
  On January 2nd, 2005 an 18-year-old farm worker was fatally injured when he became entangled in a silage defacer, which loosens and collects silage to add to a feed mix wagon. At the time of the incident, the worker was idling a tractor to allow it to warm up prior to use on a cold morning. The silage defacer was attached on the front of the tractor, approximately four feet off the ground. The worker energized the defacer unit while the tractor was idling near the farm shop, then proceeded to do some work in the shop area, and while doing this walked in front of the energized defacer unit. The sleeve of the victim's coat became caught in the unit and he became entangled around the moving parts of the machine. The farm owner, who was working nearby in the farm shop, heard an unusual sound and went to investigate. Upon arriving at the scene, he immediately turned off the power to the defacer unit, shut off the tractor engine and then called 911. The farmer disentangled the victim from the machinery and began CPR until a local EMT arrived. Shortly after, the rescue squad and state police arrived. The victim was subsequently pronounced dead at the scene. New York State Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (NY FACE) investigators concluded that to help prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future: 1. Silage defacers and other powered equipment attachments on tractors should only be energized while the operator is in the machine operator position
  
  2. Workers should not come in close proximity to operating pieces of equipment such as defacers or other machines with aggressive entanglement points and
  
  3. Employers should ensure that all operators of equipment are thoroughly trained on hazardous pieces of equipment and ensure employees follow safe operating procedures. Additionally, equipment manufacturers should consider: 4. Incorporating automatic shut off features into equipment designs such that when the operator leaves the operator seat position, the equipment deenergizes and
  
  5. Adding bright-colored paint and/or stripes on the front side wheels of defacer units to increase equipment visibility.
  
  
• Content Notes:
  Publication Date provided by FACE program
  
  not printed on the report.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Accident Prevention Accidents Accidents, Occupational Agriculture Farmers Occupational Health Personal Protective Equipment Safety Safety Management Workplace
• Keywords:
  Accident-analysis Accident-prevention Agricultural-industry Agricultural-machinery Agricultural-workers Injuries Injury-prevention OSHA Region 2 Personal-protective-equipment Protective-equipment Safety-education Safety-equipment Safety-measures Safety-monitoring Tractors Traumatic-injuries Work-analysis Work-areas Work-operations Work-performance Work-practices

  More +
• FACE - NIOSH and State:
  FACE ; Agriculture ; Machine (All) ; Machine - Farming ; Youth ; Youth Agriculture ; Prevention through Design (PtD)
• Series:
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Reports (FACE)
• Subseries:
  State
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHSFACE05NY001
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  New York ; OSHA Region 2
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-6
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20028636
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2007-100966
• Citation:
  Morgantown, WV: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, FACE 05NY001, 2005 Jul ; :1-4
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2005
• Performing Organization:
  New York State Department of Health/Health Research Incorporated
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  11 - Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting - (NAICS)
• Start Date:
  2001/09/01
• End Date:
  2006/08/31
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:a7ab491d7e44046f98b75b9b4befbf2fa9e7ecc65e17fcdcf843ff6c638f5b2318a6c3cd1b4295a3703f35c9937cff65d01928542466057e15edc282dbc511ce
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/166493/cdc_166493_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 258.51 KB ]