Seatbelts for Hay Wagons
A tragic accident has brought government-firsters to call for new government regulations on Kentucky farms.
As police investigate the death of a woman thrown from a hay wagon Saturday, a Kentucky agriculture official says there are few laws concerning safety on farm vehicles.
Some person in Virginia thinks Kentucky's laws ought to change.
Ron Melancon, a former emergency medical technician in Richmond, Va., collects information regarding deaths and accidents involving trailers and farm vehicles, and he said changes need to be made in Kentucky law. People often don't know how to work lights or connect a trailer properly, he said.
"A lot of trailers out there are in bad condition," said Melancon, who runs the Web site www.dangeroustrailers.org. "There is no training in how to drive one with people in it; they are meant for cargo."
Fortunately, the Kentucky Department of Agriculture still believes we can take personal responsibility for the welfare of ourselves and others.
Dale Dobson, head of the Farm Safety Program through the Kentucky Department of Agriculture, said the state does not have any regulations concerning who can operate farm vehicles.
"There are no laws, and we don't need any laws," he said.
Dobson said the death rate from farm-equipment accidents has decreased from 50 a year in the mid-1990s to 13 or 14 a year in the late 2000s. The safety program educates farmers on how to prevent accidents and trains emergency responders on how to handle accidents.
"We educate that it is your life, your family, your farm and your responsibility," Dobson said.
That's why the Rahm Emanuel comment 'never let a crisis go to waste' is so infamous. We know that a statement like that, spoken by most politicians/bureaucrats, means that they don't want to waste an opportunity to diminish personal responsibility and expand the government's ability to tell people what they can and cannot do.
A gold star for the Kentucky Department of Agriculture for standing up for people's ability to look out for themselves and others.
