(KAIR)--The state of Kansas is known for many things, including their beautiful farmland. Many Kansas kids have grown up on their family farm, pitching in to help wherever needed. According to Safe Kids Kansas, approximately 90,000 children live in rural areas, and these kids are at a greater risk of unintentional injury related death than kids living in urban areas.
Safe Kids Kansas is reminding families to make rural injury prevention a top priority during National Farm Safety and Health Week, which runs September 21-27.
Cheri Sage, Spokeswoman for Safe Kids Kansas says that according to a study released in the Journal of Pediatrics in 2012, less than one third of farm related injuries in yourth from 2001-2006 were not work related. This means that injury prevention efforts should focus on better supervision of children and making sure they are assigned work that is appropriate to their developmental abilities.
Sage suggests that one of the best ways to keep kids safe on the farm is to limit their use of motorized vehicles such as tractors, motorbikes, ATVs, and mowers are only built to hold one person, unless otherwise stated by the manufacturer. Also, children under the age of sixteen should never drive or ride on tractors, ATVs, or snowmobiles.
Sage says that tractors alone account for approximately 40 percent of unintentional farm injury death of children under the age of 15.
For more information on how you can identify hazards, find age appropriate tasks on the farm for children, and create safe play spaces in a rural setting, just visit cultivatesafety.org.
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