One person dying in a farming accident is still one person too many. Unfortunately, the number of reported farm fatalities in Indiana grew sharply last year according to the latest report from Purdue University.
“It really doesn’t matter if there’s 10, 20, or 30 farm fatalities in the state in a given year. That number of families have faced unimaginable tragedy,” says Ed Sheldon, Agricultural Safety Specialist with Purdue University’s Agricultural and Biological Engineering department. He was one of the co-authors of the 2024 Indiana Farm Fatality Summary, along with Dr. Bill Field and Dr. Yuan-Hsin Cheng.
Sheldon is also the featured guest on the latest episode of the “Your Farm” podcast.
According to that report, there were 28 reported farm fatalities in Indiana in 2024, which is more than two per month on average. That compares to 15 people who died on Indiana’s farms in 2023.
Sheldon tells Hoosier Ag Today that 19 of last year’s farm fatalities were those over the age of 55.
“As we age, we tend to slow down, lose a step or two here and there, and maybe we can’t quite do the things that we used to. Maybe we don’t realize that,” he says.
“Another thing we see with the senior farmers is they do tend to use older equipment in a lot of cases that doesn’t have those safety features—whether it’s rollover protective structures or they’re still using older, narrow-front tractors,” says Sheldon.
Among the 28 reported deaths, only one was reported to be a woman.
The research also found in 2024 that 3 young children died in Indiana farming accidents.
“I think we can always devote more interest and more attention to keeping kids safe on the farm,” says Sheldon. “What we want to do is instill in folks that extra thought of taking that extra minute and that extra second to think about what could happen how it could be prevented. It’s a tough thing to do because we don’t want to think about the bad that can happen. Just take that extra moment and always make safety a priority,” says Sheldon.
CLICK HERE to read the 2024 Indiana Farm Fatality Summary.
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