2017 Pennsylvania Farm Fatal Injury Summary

Annual summaries of farm fatalities help identify hazards and risks associated with production agriculture. This report summarizes Pennsylvania's 2017 farm fatality data. Fatalities were compared and validated using AgInjuryNews.org and Pennsylvania issued death certificates.

Demographics

In 2017, there were 30 farm and agricultural fatalities in Pennsylvania. Almost 28% of the fatalities were to youth younger than 18 years and 28% of the fatalities were to 65 and older. Most of the victims were male and 28% of the victims were Anabaptist.

Table 1. Demographics of the victims

Age of Victim

Gender

Anabaptist

2017 total:

• Frequency = 30
• Percentage = 100%

Farm and Agricultural Injury Code (FAIC)

The Farm and Agricultural Injury Classification (FAIC) Code is a classification scheme used to separate out incidents not directly related to the work of production agriculture. The FAIC was introduced in Pennsylvania in 1992 and revised in 2000; therefore 2017 totals can only be compared with 2001-2015 and 2016 totals.

Agricultural Occupational (n=17)

Non-Agricultural Occupational (n=13)

Fatalities by Injury Source

Fatality reports since 2000 have been used by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Occupational Injury and Illness Classification System (OIICS) to characterize primary and secondary sources of injury. BLS revised the structure of categories in 2012. Most changes are subtle, but use caution when comparing the 2017 report to previous reports. The Primary Source of injury or illness identifies the object, bodily motion, or exposure which directly produced or inflicted the previously identified injury or illness. Table 3 provides the frequencies and percentages of primary injury sources.

The Secondary Source of injury or illness identifies the object, substance, or person that generated the source of injury or illness or that contributed to the event or exposure. Secondary source was detected for 10 incidents: Fences, fence panels, gates (3), trees, logs, limbs (2), Farm tractor (2), Walls (1), embankments (1), and passenger van (1).

Table 3. Primary Injury Sources

Agricultural and Garden Machinery Related Fatalities (n=1)

Construction, Logging, and Mining Machinery Related Fatalities (n=3)

Vehicle and Mobile Equipment Parts Related Fatalities (n=2)

Animal Related Fatalities (n=3)

Plants, Trees, Vegetation-not Processed Related Fatalities (n=1)

Structures and Surfaces Related Fatalities (n=1)

Geographical Structures Related Fatalities (n=1)

Highway Vehicles, Motorized Related Fatalities (n=3)

Animal- and Human—Powered Vehicles Related Fatalities (n=2)

Off-road and Industrial Vehicles—Powered Related Fatalities (n=13)

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Dr. Bryan Weichelt, National Farm Medicine Center, for reviewing the 2017 Pennsylvania fatality data. Eight additional Pennsylvania fatality cases were identified through a comparison with  AgInjuryNews.org. These cases were included in Penn State's data set for 2017.