U.S. Rep. Josh Riley announced a new piece of legislation to reauthorize a national program that supports tractor upgrades aimed at enhancing safety.
During a press conference at heavy-duty equipment company Sydenstricker Nobbe Partners in Oneonta, Riley said what he calls the Tractor Safety Act, a bipartisan bill, would save farmer’s lives and ensure that no farmer has to choose between “their safety and their bottom line.”
He said he wants to reauthorize the National ROPS, or rollover protective structures, Rebate Program, which provides assistance for farmers looking to retrofit their old tractors with rollover protection.
He added that a lot of tractors in use today were built before rollbars became standard. That was in 1985 when a voluntary industry standard was adopted for new tractors, although OSHA had been requiring them on certain tractors since 1976.
Retrofitting a tractor with a rollbar can be expensive, Riley said, with a typical retrofit costing about $1,200. As a result, safety upgrades sometimes don’t get made. Under the bill, 70% of the cost of rollbar retrofits would be covered in New York, Riley said, and farmers out-of-pocket costs would be capped at $500 for equipment and installation.
When the announcement was over, Riley said he believed at that price point, these safety measures become more feasible. He added that he has been able to build a “bipartisan coalition” around the bill.
Every dollar spent on rollover bar rebates “returns $3.75 in economic and public health benefits,” Riley said, not only saving people’s lives, but also saving their farms and the small businesses that support them.
“I don’t care if you’re a Democrat or a Republican or none of the above,” Riley said. “What I care about is that we all care about our neighbors, we respect our farmers, we support our small businesses, we fix problems, we have each other’s backs and we get the job done.”
Judy Pangman, the community development director for the city of Oneonta, said she and her husband own a grass-fed beef farm in the town of Carlise in Schoharie County. She said in June 2010, their business associate and “good friend” David Huse was killed in a farm tractor accident. Huse was driving down the road back to the farm when he was hit head-on by a car that flipped his tractor.
She emphasized the “impacts that he had on the farming community, locally, regionally and statewide.” She said Huse was a strong advocate for beef farming and grass-fed beef, and she was paid to graze his youngstock on the farm.
After he died, Pangman said there was a five- to eight-year financial recovery time for her farm, and other farmers with similar associations were impacted, too.
“Where ROPS helped us is after the fact, we learned so much about safety, which I’d wished we’d all known before that,” Pangman said.
The original ROPS Rebate Program launched in the state in 2006 through the New York Center for Agricultural Medicine and Health. It helped to deliver more than 2,000 rollbar retrofits to New York farmers and expanded to other states. Riley said the act would not only continue “but expand” this work.
NYCAMH Director Julie Sorensen said rollover bars are 99% effective in protecting a farm operator in the event they experience a tractor overturn. Since starting the ROPS program, she said it has been “one of the most effective programs at saving farmers’ lives, preventing traumatic injury, saving money and ensuring farmers have the peace of mind to do the important work that they do.”
Barbara Hanselmann, the Delaware County Farm Bureau President and a dairy farmer, said farming can be a very dangerous industry but is often romanticized. Safety risks exist alongside the industry, she said, which can have ripple effects on communities.
“One farm going out of business doesn’t just affect that farm, it affects the neighboring farms, the community (and) the many businesses that serves us,” Hanselmann said. “I know that the No. 1 thing is ROPS saves lives, but it also will save communities.”
After the announcement, Oneonta Town Supervisor Will Rivera said he believes the program would have a great impact on Oneonta farmers.
“I want to make sure that the town of Oneonta farmers and their families and extended families know that they have a safe option with the ROPS program with these rollover bars installed, continue to make money for their families, continue to have a thriving business and return home safely,” Rivera said.