It’s a labour of love, and a tribute, when Tracey Cross-Childs stands in front of a group of producers and recounts the story of how she lost her son Jamie in a farming tragedy.
But she does it in the hopes that others might learn from it, and choose to adopt a safer farming lifestyle.
Cross-Childs grew up on a farm just over 10 kilometers north of Bothwell, a small town in southwestern Ontario. She loved farming at a young age, but learned early on that farming can be dangerous if one is not careful.
Once when she was riding on the tractor with her dad, her shoelace got caught in the power take off (PTO) shaft. The entanglement left her right foot permanently scarred.
When Cross-Childs started to have children of her own, she made sure there were clear farm safety rules that kept her kids far away from tractor-drawn implements.
On June 5, 1997, Cross-Childs’ son was permitted to go for a tractor ride with his grandfather.
“Jamie was the younger of our two sons, and he was going to be our farmer,” said Cross-Childs. “Farming was in his blood, even at three years old.”
That afternoon, standing alongside his grandfather on an open tractor platform, Jamie helped check the tile drainage in the field.
They were on their way home when a sudden jolt caused Jamie to fall forward. Cross-Childs says it all happened too fast for her father to react and her son died instantly beneath the rear tractor wheel.
Jamie McCallum became one of an average of 104 Canadian farm fatalities that take place each year, approximately 13 of which are children. Like so many farm injuries and fatalities, Cross-Childs said Jamie’s death could have been prevented.
“It has made me a safety advocate and I share Jamie’s story because I want farm families to understand the risks involved in having an extra rider,” said Cross-Childs.
“Please, stop and think before you consider taking your son, daughter, grandchild, niece or nephew for a ride on any powered farm equipment, be it an ‘open station’ or ‘cabbed in’ tractor.”
Glen Blahey, an agricultural health and safety specialist with the Canadian Agricultural Safety Association, said, “Cross-Childs has a great deal of courage to stand up in front of complete strangers and tell her story again and again.”
“The lessons from her experience are crucial. Children are not miniature adults, their perception of hazards is virtually non-existent. So it is our responsibility as adults to recognize the hazards, such as the risk of taking extra riders, and take the steps to protect our children.”
Today Cross-Childs is an active member of the Lambton Farm Safety Association and is quick to point out that some things, like a cab on a tractor, have lulled farmers into a false sense of security. She says it fools farm parents into adopting dangerous habits, which children then learn by example.
Cross-Child is shocked when farmers, who have experienced a close call, fail to change their habits.
Cross-Childs says anyone who has ever seen a straw man introduced to an unguarded PTO knows these incidents happen extremely fast and the results are devastating. She laments that anyone who hasn’t seen the demonstration won’t have an opportunity to do so anymore. The demo has been pulled for liability reasons. But she continues to urge farmers to analyze their behaviour around tractors and adopt practices that are safe, especially when they are in a hurry.
Cross-Childs says she takes comfort in knowing she’s getting through to people. Anytime she’s told someone has reconsidered their actions after hearing someone like her speak or seeing a safety demo, Cross-Childs says it’s a really feel-good moment for her.
“I think there’s more awareness now than there ever was, but we know there’s still lots of work to be done,” she says. “Farming is the only occupation where you’re allowed to take your kids with you and you’ve really got to stop and ask if this is where they should be.”
Tracy Cross-Childs will be a speaker at the FarmSafe Forum in Guelph on March 11.
