Does your son or daughter work on a farm during the summer? Do you hire youth to work for you during the year? Do these young people have adequate safety training?
Accidents cause more deaths to individuals between the ages of 15 and 24 than all other causes combined. To help reduce accidents, a Farm Tractor Safety Certification Course is being coordinated by UW-Extension Washington County.
The 24-hour course will be held on four Saturdays, Feb.15, Feb. 22, Mar. 8 and Mar. 15 from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Mar. 22 has been set-aside for a snow date.
The course focuses on the safety aspects of operating farm equipment. To complete the course, youth must attend all four sessions and pass a written and a driving exam.
Federal law requires that youth younger than 16 years must be certified before being hired to work with tractors and tractor machinery. Effective May 1, 1996, state law mandated that no person may direct or permit a youth younger than 16 years of age to operate a farm tractor or self-propelled implement on a public road unless the youth has been certified as successfully completing a tractor and machinery certification course. Youth must be the minimum age of 12 by the first session of the Tractor Safety Course in order to register.
Teenagers who drive a tractor for their parents may still do so without the formal training program as long as they do not operate the tractor on a public road. The law also does not apply to situations where a youth is driving a tractor and implement directly across (perpendicular to) a public road.
If you intend to hire any teenagers on your farm, make sure that they enroll in this course for your protection as well as theirs. There are penalties for not complying with the law. Also, some insurance companies have indicated that, technically, they cannot cover an accident to an untrained youth.
The cost of the course is $50 per student and limited to the first 25 paid participants.
Source:uwex.edu