5-15-14 tractor safety

MILWAUKEE (AP) — A coalition of farming organizations is starting a campaign to encourage parents to keep children under age 12 off of tractors after a spate of accidents in the past year.  Agricultural youth safety specialist Marsha Salzwedel said Wednesday that the Wisconsin-based Childhood Agricultural Safety Network launched the campaign after seeing numerous children killed and injured in accidents last year. She says more accidents have been reported in the past month as weather warmed and farmers got into fields.  Salzwedel says the network supports children working on farms but wants to ensure that children who drive tractors are developmentally ready to do so.  She also says many children who are killed are not working but merely riding along with parents who are.  The network ran a similar safety campaign in 2007.