Farm safety event to focus on distracted driving

This year’s Louis Crosier Farm Safety Symposium on Friday might sound like a public service announcement for all drivers, not only agriculture workers.

Dale Dobson, safety administrator of the Kentucky Department of Agriculture, said that makes sense because distracted driving, including texting while driving, is an important issue that affects everyone.

“It doesn’t matter what you’re driving, whether it’s a car or a grain truck or farm equipment,” he said. “If you’re driving distracted, you can run over things.”

Dobson cited as an example a farmer who stopped on train tracks in a grain truck in the southern part of the state last fall. The train’s camera showed the man on his cell phone, not noticing the approaching train.

“It’s not just a big issue today on the farm,” he said. “It’s an issue in everything.”

Dobson said he hopes the topic helps people realize how easily distracted driving can turn dangerous.

“Distracted driving is just as bad as drinking and driving,” he said. “Distracted driving kills.”

The event takes place at 7 p.m. in the Regional Postsecondary Center Auditorium at Elizabethtown Community and Technical College.

Dobson said the event has proved its worth. University of Kentucky Southeast Injury Prevention Center statistics show a decrease from an average of 54 agriculture-related fatalities each year documented in 1994 to 14 in 2007, he said.

It also teaches people how to respond to dangerous situations on farms. Dobson said that training helped responders successfully rescue a Hardin County farmer who was trapped in a grain bin last week.

“We don’t tell people how to farm or how to live their lives,” he said. “It’s really simple. Have a safe farm, and have a good year.”

Saturday and Sunday feature Dixie Fire School, which is hosted by the Dixie Firefighters Association, at ECTC.

About 740 students are preregistered for the fire school, setting it up to be one of the largest yet, Dobson said.

The fire school is from 7:30 a.m. until 5 p.m. Saturday and 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. Sunday. Saturday features a challenge to firefighting teams in which they’ll simulate aspects of their job, such as dragging a heavy mannequin and swinging a sledgehammer to break through solid materials.

The event is named after the late Kentucky 86 Fire and Rescue chief, who died in 2008. Crosier was a charter member of that fire department.

Amber Coulter can be reached at (270) 505-1746 or acoulter@thenewsenterprise.com.