Tractors can kill. Farm safety for teens can save lives.
| Gering, Neb.
Ellen Duysen has driven 470 miles across Nebraska to get here, her windshield streaked with bugs. Her task: to impart safety lessons to a group of 14-year-old farmers in the state鈥檚 far west corner.
As outreach coordinator for the Central States Center for Agricultural Safety and Health in Omaha, Ms. Duysen aims to cajole and inspire young farmers to embrace a 鈥渃ulture of safety鈥� to protect them from the myriad hazards claiming the lives of far too many of their peers.聽
鈥淲hat are you doing for fun this summer?鈥� Ms. Duysen asks the five teenagers assembled at the Legacy of the Plains Museum in Gering, situated amid a landscape of buttes and two-lane roads.聽 聽
Why We Wrote This
A story focused onAbout every three days, a child in the United States dies from an agriculture-related injury. One expert is cultivating lifesaving skills among teen farmers.
鈥淩aising show pigs,鈥� 14-year-old Trey Carter pipes up.聽
鈥淭hey鈥檙e naughty, aren鈥檛 they?鈥� says Ms. Duysen, who has raised pigs herself and whose easygoing manner helps build rapport with the teens before she begins discussing the perils of farmwork.
Tragic statistics
About every three days, a child in the United States dies from an agriculture-related injury, and the agricultural sector leads the nation in the number of occupational fatalities for youths 17 and under, according to the National Children鈥檚 Center for Rural and Agricultural Health and Safety. Youths under age 16 have 12 times the risk of injuries involving all-terrain vehicles compared with adults, with some 300 children dying each year. Tractor accidents are the leading cause of death on farms, with roughly half of the vehicles lacking safety devices designed to prevent potentially fatal rollovers.聽
Ms. Duysen is the sneakers-on-the-ground expert educating farmers in seven states across the Midwest and the Great Plains. She is often accompanied by Pat, a male mannequin that she calls 鈥済orgeous鈥� and 鈥渄elightful鈥� and that helps her demonstrate personal protective equipment (PPE). Her home base at the University of Nebraska Medical Center is one of 12 centers around the country established by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), a branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Spend a little time with Ms. Duysen, and you鈥檒l hear about the 7-year-old in South Dakota who suffocated in a grain wagon, the 14-year-old in Iowa who was killed when his family was changing a tractor wheel, or the gas can explosion in the same state that killed an 11-year-old. Tragedies can happen in an instant, whether it鈥檚 a tractor hitting a hidden prairie dog hole or a farmer taking a moment to pick sweet corn and forgetting to set the parking brake. 鈥淥h my gosh, you can become so saddened by the statistics,鈥� Ms. Duysen says. 鈥淲hen you hear about these young farmers dying, it becomes a passion to keep them safe and healthy.鈥�
For the teens gathered at the museum in Gering, the day is a chance to earn a certificate that will allow them to legally drive tractors for people other than their parents, potentially enhancing their incomes. Federal law prohibits children under 16 from driving tractors unless their parents or legal guardians own the farm or unless they have certification. To gain certification, the teens will have to navigate a tractor with an attached trailer through a maze of orange cones set up in the museum parking lot.
With humor and heart
The teens鈥� skills will be evaluated by John Thomas, a local agricultural extension educator who typically advises farmers on growing sugar beets, beans, and other crops. Ms. Duysen always breaks the ice in her training sessions by asking, 鈥淲hat鈥檚 the weirdest food you鈥檝e ever eaten?鈥� Today鈥檚 replies 鈥� tuna casserole, seaweed, pickles submerged in Dr Pepper 鈥� are eclipsed by Mr. Thomas鈥� recipe for freezing a thousand live crickets and then sprinkling them with olive oil and salt before baking.聽 聽 聽
鈥淩emind us never to come to your barbecue,鈥� Ms. Duysen quips.聽 聽
With sly humor and an energy belying four hours of sleep, she leans into hands-on learning, from a 鈥渟top the bleed鈥� exercise with limbs made out of denim-wrapped pool noodles spattered with fake blood to a PPE fashion show in which the teens model noise-reducing earmuffs, face shields, and air-purifying respirators. 鈥淭his is the bomb!鈥� Ms. Duysen enthuses about the show.聽
She uses a miniature plastic farmer submerged in corn kernels to demonstrate how farmers can easily become engulfed in grain bins 鈥� what some call Midwestern quicksand. 鈥淲e鈥檝e lost three good Nebraska men this year already,鈥� she says. 鈥淒o not go in that bin.鈥�
She also asks her young charges how they might say no to a boss demanding that they do so. 鈥淩espectfully, sir, I鈥檓 too young to die,鈥� volunteers Kenley Dehning, one of three young women in the group.
She and her fellow teens completed an online course before the training, including homework. Kenley tallied the state鈥檚 farm injuries and fatalities, noting gender disparities. 鈥淗eck yeah!鈥� Ms. Duysen says in response to the research. Rainee Olson interviewed her uncle, who was 11 years old and eating lunch on a tractor when he accidentally hit the gear shift and fell off, crushing his arm and ankle and pulling off an ear. (鈥淭hey sewed it back on,鈥� Rainee reports.)聽
鈥淎n expert who has lived it鈥�
Ms. Duysen is highly attuned to agricultural injuries, having had one herself. She was 26 and working for a veterinary pharmaceutical company in Colorado when she attempted to collect a blood sample from a heifer, who was secured in a head gate. As she leaned down, the heifer鈥檚 noggin collided with her own, knocking out her front teeth. The oral surgeon identified the heifer鈥檚 color by the red hairs in Ms. Duysen鈥檚 mouth. The experience changed Ms. Duysen鈥檚 approach. 鈥淚 slowed down, for dang sure,鈥� she says.
She grew up in Phoenix, the daughter of a psychologist and a newspaper editor, with four brothers (鈥渋t made me super tough鈥�). After working as a microbiologist, she eventually decided to get a master鈥檚 degree in public health; providentially, the agricultural center opened six months later. She and her husband, Jack, a contractor, raised their three sons on a farm in Carson, Iowa.聽
In 2010, her center and four others launched the Telling the Story Project in which farmers reflect on their injuries and how they might have been prevented. The concept grew out of some 500 interviews Ms. Duysen and her now-retired mentor, Shari Burgus, conducted.
Jennifer Lincoln, associate director at NIOSH, credits Ms. Duysen for her role in the project, 鈥渃alling it a very powerful tool.鈥澛�
鈥淭here鈥檚 a difference between having an 鈥榚xpert鈥� and an expert who has lived it,鈥� she adds.聽
This summer, Ms. Duysen also planned to set up shop at agricultural fairs like Husker Harvest Days, where she would entice grown-ups with free bucket hats 鈥� better sun protection than the baseball caps that many farmers wear. For lunch, she would grab a pork chop on a stick.
鈥淚f everyone was cautious, it would probably put us out of work,鈥� she muses. There will be umpteen thousands of miles driven and who knows how many safety sessions with teenage farmers before then.
