WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (AP) — Purdue University researchers say Indiana’s farm fatalities rose 10 percent last year, with tractor overturns remaining the leading cause of fatal injuries on the state’s farms.
Purdue’s annual report found 28 farm-related deaths last year, up from 25 in 2014. But it says Indiana’s farm fatalities continue an overall decline that began in 1970 as increasingly fewer people choose to live and work on farms.
Overturned tractors accounted for 39 percent of Indiana’s farm fatalities last year. All but one of Indiana’s documented tractor overturn deaths in the past 20 years involved tractors lacking rollover bars intended to prevent drivers from being crushed in overturns.
Falls from buildings or horseback, entrapment under equipment and being kicked or rammed by livestock accounted for some of Indiana’s other farm fatalities last year.
