Another Youth Farming Accident
Another tragic farming accident this week. In Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, police arrived to find a dump truck crushed a 6-year-old boy’s neck. The frame and the bed of a dump truck injured the boy as it lowered. An adult family member had raised the bed to dump feed for cows. When he tried to lower it, it would not go down. The family member discovered the frame and bed of the truck trapped the boy.
Unfortunately, this nightmare is too common for agricultural families. Of the leading sources of fatal injuries to youth on U.S. farms, 23% involve machinery (includes tractors), 19% involved motor vehicles (includes ATVs), and 16% are due to drowning. Of nonfatal injuries, 31% occur in children under 10 years old.
Farming Accidents from Defective Equipment
If farm equipment injured you or a loved one or made you lose wages, you deserve justice.
Remember, you don’t have to use farm equipment negligently for it to malfunction. Farm equipment malfunctions occur because companies don’t design safe machinery. Manufacturers often fail to warn you of all the ways their heavy, complex machine can injure you.
When farmers are injured by unsafe farm machinery without adequate warnings for secure operation, it is equipment is considered “defective”. This term that applies to poor design, improper manufacturing, negligent marketing, or all three.
Consequently, if you are an injured farm worker, if one of your family members has been injured or died working on a farm, or if you have lost wages due to injury, you may be entitled to compensation−including payments above and beyond Worker’s Compensation.