EDMONTON -- A judge says Alberta should require mandatory agriculture safety training and equipment checks following the death of a worker who was pulled into a farm machine.
Provincial court Judge Anne Brown makes the recommendations in a fatality inquiry report into the 2014 death of Stephen Gibson.
Gibson was working on a farm northwest of Calgary moving grain from a silo to a cattle feed area using an auger and a drive shaft machine called a power take off.
After unclogging a jam, his clothing got caught and he was drawn into the unshielded machine, which killed the 46-year-old instantly.
Brown says farm safety training should be a compulsory part of post-secondary agriculture programs and there should be annual safety checks of farm equipment.
She notes that farming is hazardous work and cites a federal report that says 92 per cent of farm deaths are work-related while 70 per cent of those deaths involve machinery.
