| REESE - None of the men in the Wally Bierlein farm family
wears rings, not even a wedding band.
After Mark L. Bierlein lost a finger in a ring-related accident about
15 years ago, all the jewelry came off.
Bierlein had climbed the side of a truck to check on the last load of
wheat for the season. He decided to jump off instead of climb down.
"He was holding onto the top of the side-wall and the ring got
caught," said brother Wayne R. Bierlein. "He came down but the
ring stayed."
Despite advances in equipment and education campaigns, farming does not
appear any safer than it was a decade ago, officials say.
Farmers still get caught in augers still get pinned under heavy
equipment and fall into grain bins and suffocate.
Farming ranks "a close second" to mining as the most
dangerous occupation, said Sam Steele, director of the National Education
Center for Agricultural Safety, a division of the National Safety Council.
In most agricultural states, farmers are five times more likely to die
in a work-related accident than people in most other industries, he said.
The Bierleins farm 1,800 acres near Reese. They raise corn, sugar
beets, soybeans, dry beans and wheat.
Wayne Bierlein, 38, said he can remember many accidents.
"I was about 2 when dad (Wally Bierlein) got his leg broke in a
beet harvester," Wayne Bierlein said.
"He broke it in two places. I barely remember playing with his
crutches."
Some insurance companies are considering offering farmers price
incentives on their policies if they have their farm certified as
"safe," Steele said.
"That's the wave of the future," he said. "A lot of
insurance companies in the next five years will look at that as a way to
reduce claims."
Gauging trends is difficult, said George Maher, agricultural safety
specialist with the North Dakota State University Extension Service.
Many farmers treat injuries at home and go right back to work without
reporting them, he said.
"We're always getting bruises, bumps, cuts and other
knuckle-busters," Wayne Bierlein said. "I've probably had a
dozen stitches over the years. It seems like you're always cutting your
hand on sharp pieces of metal. Your hand slips, and you get gouged."
It was about four years ago that Bierlein fell off a tractor.
"It knocked the wind out of me where I couldn't breathe for about
a minute," he said. "After I eventually got up, I couldn't drive
the tractor, it hurt so bad.
"My ribs were bruised, and I was pretty sore for about a week. I
never went to get X-rays. I suspect that I broke or cracked a couple of
ribs."
As a youth, Bierlein said he remembers a one-armed neighbor, Bill
Rogner.
"We've got a picture of him and my grandpa in a community band,
and (Rogner) was holding a trumpet in his left hand, because he had lost
the other arm in some farm accident. It was a corn-picker or something
like that."
Steele said farmers 55 and older are a high-risk group.
"A lot has to do with them oper ating older tractors that are not
protected (with safety measures)," he said. "A lot has to do
with them slowing down, the aging characteristics."
In Michigan, the average age of a farmer is 53.3, said Robert Boehm,
manager of the Michigan Farm Bureau Commodity and Market Department.
Boehm's latest figures come from a 1997 census.
The average age was 51.9 in 1992 and 50.9 in 1987.
A poor farm economy has forced many farmers to forgo newer, safer
machinery and buy equipment "as is" at auctions, Maher said.
The stress of surviving lean times also puts safety issues back in many
farmers' minds, he said.
"Stuff happens when you're in a hurry," Bierlein said.
"When you get behind and try to rush things, that's when the
accidents happen."
Looking back, Bierlein said he can see how youthful brashness also can
lead to injuries.
"We're all invincible when we're young and stupid," he said.
"We're made of iron. These accidents we hear about always happen to
somebody else, until they happen to us." |