“Nobody plans an accident,” Mike Chambers told the audience at the Waterloo Community Health Centre’s annual Farm Safety Rally on Wednesday night in St. Jacobs. “I don’t believe there’s anybody who’d ever get up in the morning and say, ‘Today would be a great day to have an accident!’”
Nobody in the audience vocally doubted the notion, but several of them had suffered accidents on the job before. Chambers, who is the sales manager for Stoltz Sales and Service in Elmira, delivered a presentation to farmers and farm-owners at the Woolwich Community Centre that emphasized a basic truism of misfortune: “Many, many times an accident happens because we are in a hurry.”
![Growing up on a farm, Mike Chambers learned the value of “safety first” when his younger brother suffered a tractor injury.[will sloan / the observer]](https://www.observerxtra.com/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/news-farm-safety.jpg)
Chambers enumerated the many hypothetical situations. “We’re planting; it’s going to rain on our hay; chores are taking a little longer and you have to get to the next thing in a hurry.”
Over the course of his presentation, Chambers explained how rushing, carelessness, and complacency are the biggest threats to farmers, and revealed how they are more common than one might consciously realize. “How many of you – whether it’s been riding a bike, driving a tractor, car, horse – have said, ‘Whew! That was close!’” asked Chambers. “That’s a warning sign. That’s telling you you’re likely not paying attention.
“Be very, very cautious,” he continued. “If you’re running the mower condition and you run very, very close to something, or you’re swerving: stop, and get out. Get off, and take a walk around.” While showing an alarming slideshow of tractor collisions, Chambers introduced two catchphrases for the evening: “Look twice, save a life – it might be yours,” and “Safety first will make you last.”
Chambers, who grew up on a farm, was able to recount a story from his own childhood that showed he knows of what he speaks. With his two younger brothers, he used to drive a tractor to round up garbage.
“My younger brother climbed over the hood, stuck his leg between the bucket and the tin wall [of a house]. My youngest brother thought, ‘I’ll just jump in the seat and start the tractor.’ And he did. As my brother was putting his leg down, the tractor came ahead and pushed my brother into the tin wall.
“He ended up with major surgery. … The one good thing that came out of the whole thing was that it wasn’t a cement wall, or he would have lost his life.”
The Farm Safety Rally was held as part of Canadian Agriculture Safety Week, an annual initiative launched by the Canadian Agricultural Safety Association to spread education and awareness about forward-thinking behaviour on the farm. Today (Saturday) marks the last day of the week, but as Chambers’ younger brother can attest, farm safety is not limited to a weekly border.
