Lighting and Marking Farm Equipment

Agriculture is one of the most hazardous occupations in the United States as determined by death rates. Excluding persons under 14 years of age, the National Safety Council (1993) estimates there were 37 deaths per 100,000 agricultural workers in 1992. Farm machinery and motor vehicles being used for farm related purposes are often involved in accidental agricultural deaths. The classes of injury causing agent with the greatest frequency of accidental occupational farm fatalities during 1992 in Iowa were tractors, machinery, and motor vehicles {IDPH, 1993). Together these three classes accounted for 64 percent of 83 recorded fatalities. Thirty-one percent of the agricultural injuries involving tractors, machinery or motor vehicles occurred during October and November (IDPH, 1993)