Minnesota lawmakers embracing bills aimed at enhanced farm safety

After years of neglect, the subject of farm safety is suddenly hot at the State Capitol.

At committee hearings Wednesday, state lawmakers embraced several bills that could dramatically expand efforts to reduce the number of agricultural workers killed while tending crops and raising livestock. Lawmakers said Minnesota can learn from other states and should borrow from programs that are working elsewhere.

"The point is that we are lagging," said Rep. Clark Johnson, a Democrat from North Mankato who recently introduced a farm safety bill and intends to follow up with more legislation in 2017.

Johnson and other lawmakers said they were prompted to act by a 2015 series in the Star Tribune that revealed a disturbing spike in the number of Minnesota farmers killed in work-related accidents. From 2003 to 2013, a total of 210 Minnesotans died in farm accidents, up 30 percent from the previous decade. Farm accidents are now the leading cause of work-related deaths in Minnesota, accounting for one-quarter of the total.

"210 deaths in 10 years is a serious deal," Johnson said. "We are remiss if we don't draw attention to that."

Under Johnson's bill, the Minnesota Department of Agriculture would receive $100,000 to establish a farm safety program. Johnson said he wants the department to spend the next few months reviewing safety efforts in Minnesota and other states and return to lawmakers at the end of the year with a bold proposal for the 2017 legislative session.

"We are trying to jump-start the process," Johnson said. "Let's give the department some leeway to work and get rolling on it. … I see coming back next January with a bigger idea."

Rep. Paul Anderson, a Republican farmer from Starbuck, is trying to borrow a page from New York, which in 2006 established the nation's first rebate program for farmers willing to add rollover protection to aging tractors. Tractor accidents are the No. 1 killer on the farm, accounting for more than 1,700 deaths since 2003. In Minnesota, most fatal accidents occurred on tractors without rollover protection, such as a roll bar, records show.

Julie Sorensen, who runs the publicly funded program in New York, came to Minnesota Wednesday to testify about the program's successes at two separate committee hearings. She said the program has saved at least 14 farmworkers, including an 18-year-old boy who fell through the floor of an old barn while operating a heavy tractor. He was saved by the roll bar, which protected him as the tractor slid down the wall.

When used with a seat belt, roll bars are 99 percent effective in preventing death or serious injury in a tractor overturn, according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

Under Anderson's proposal, Minnesota would cover 70 percent of the costs of upgrading older tractors. The typical kit costs about $1,000 to install, but because some are much more expensive, Anderson's bill would cap a farmer's out-of-pocket costs at $500. The program would be voluntary.

Sorensen said her research showed that the cost of rollover protection, when compared to the relatively low value of older tractors, makes the devices unattractive to most farmers. Sorensen said roll bars are available for about 85 percent of older tractors that lack rollover protection.

"It is obviously not as safe as we'd like it to be, but the chapter doesn't really have the money to buy rollover protection," Larson told lawmakers. "We know that 2.4 million tractors [in the U.S.] are without rollover protection, which is kind of shocking when you think about how deadly rollovers are."

Jeffrey Meitrodt • 612-673-4132