A Review of 2016–2017 Agricultural Youth Injuries Involving Skid Steers and a Call for Intervention and Translational Research

ABSTRACT

Skid steers or loaders are becoming prolific in U.S. agriculture – as are the injuries and fatalities related to their use. A review of incidents as queried in AgInjuryNews from 2016 to 2017 revealed an overrepresentation of youth being involved in these tragic incidents. This raises concerns over parental attitudes and beliefs about the safety of these machines. Skid steer incidents do not appear to be a result from a lack of safety education materials, however. Indeed, manufacturers, the Centers for Disease Control, and many state extension systems have safety manuals and general instruction, including YouTube videos and online resources. Thus, there appears to be a significant gap between safety knowledge and practice. There is also a lack of published research, including intervention strategies, training evaluation, and translational/implementation studies specific to skid steer machines. This review of youth incidents is therefore also a call for further research for foundational studies regarding attitudes and behaviors involving skid steers in agriculture, intervention models, and efforts to translate prevention knowledge beyond the existing materials.

KEYWORDS:

• Agriculture
• farm
• fatality
• injury
• loader
• media
• skid steer
• youth

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Kathie Smith, Scott Heiberger, and Dr Josie Rudolphi from the National Farm Medicine Center for assistance with editing the manuscript.

Disclosure

The authors have no personal or financial conflicts of interest to disclose.

Institution and Ethics approval and informed consent

No human subjects were involved in this project.

Additional information

Funding

Funding for this project was provided by the National Farm Medicine Center and philanthropic donor support.

Notes on contributors

Bryan Weichelt

All authors participated in the conception or design of the work; the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; drafting the work and revising it critically for important intellectual content; final approval of the version to be submitted/published; and all agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved