Misuse of Big Equipment has Big-Time Consequences

Submitted by Tracy Schlater
Marketing Director, Farm Safety For Just Kids

From the time they’re in diapers, many farm kids are driving tractor.  They push scale model toys across kitchen floors and “rip” through living room carpets.  After years of just pretending, many farm youth are excited when they finally are given the opportunity to get behind the wheel of the real deal.

Not properly operating big equipment, however, can have big-time consequences.  Just ask Trevor Hoff of Maryland, who was 14 years old when he was run over by a tractor while on his way to feed cattle in the pasture.

Trevor put his tractor in park and jumped down to open a gate. Upon climbing back into the seat, he put the tractor in gear.  A few seconds later he heard a bang and realized the gate had swung shut. Without a second thought, Trevor slid out of the tractor seat.  And just as his foot hit the ground, the tractor started to roll.  He’d forgotten to put the tractor back in park.

“I can still remember the tractor tire going over my face,” he says in a Herald-Whig article. “It broke every bone from my chin to my eye socket. I have seven plates and 37 screws holding my face together, a couple of plates and screw in my hips.”

Eighteen hours of surgery later, the 14-year-old was told he’d never walk again. Amazingly enough he survived. His mom calls it a miracle.  Click the video link below to hear his story.