One day, Dieter Krieg and his grandfather were unloading a pickup truck on Krieg's farm. The pickup truck, parked on the slightest of slopes, started sliding. It could have killed his grandfather had it not been stopped by a building overhang.
"There wasn't much of a slope. But, by George, I can tell you it scared the stuffing out of me," said Krieg, the editor of Farmshine, a weekly dairy and agriculture newspaper in Brownstown. "You can't possibly ever be too careful. You always got to be on the lookout for dangers. For yourself and especially for your children."
On Saturday, farm families — and specifically their children — can learn about farm dangers by attending the Farm Family Safety Day Camp at Bart Fire Company, just off Route 896, Georgetown.
Presented by Lancaster Safe Kids Coalition, the camp is free, running from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
During the six-hour day, children will learn about confined spaces — like silos and feed bins — and be taught fire, water and chemical safety from about 20 volunteers with farming and safety experience. There are 10 planned safety stations in all.
"Farm children are at risk because of the environment they live in. To them, farm is home. And farm families tend to work together," said Don Trimble, a member of the Safe Kids Coalition and chairman of the Farm Safety Committee. "Families are dealing with a lot of equipment and sometimes don't think about the things that could cause harm or injuries."
As may have been the case for Enos King. He forgot that his 8-year-old son had climbed into the family's feed mixer in March 2006 to close a window that disrupted its operation.
King got back on his tractor and turned on the mixer. He later had to pull out his dead son on the family's East Lampeter Township farm.
The incident became the first of many that claimed the lives of young Lancaster farm children that year.
Two months later in May, a 9-year-old boy fell from a skid loader bucket in Conoy Township. A few days after that, a 3-year-old died after being trapped in a fertilizer machine in Fulton Township.
"Farming is one of the most dangerous occupations," Trimble said. "Kids play and live in this danger. It's part of the economy; kids help on the farm and do things that aren't done under normal circumstances."
The day camp was started by Dr. Albert Price. The Lancaster resident came up with the idea of teaching children farm safety during his days as a pediatrician, where he would often see young children being treated for preventable accidents on the family farm.
"And the articles in the newspapers were so tiny — so and so run over by a tractor, age 6," Price said. "That's it. Life is gone. And nobody was doing anything about it at the time."
Ever since the camp's inception 12 years ago, typically 50 or so families come out to participate in the day's activities.
Well, every year but this one, so far.
About one week ago, the number of families had yet to crack double digits.
"I got a letter from Dr. Price. And as he indicated at the time he wrote the letter, only four families had signed up," Krieg said June 5. "Only four families? That is beyond my comprehension."
Krieg called the program "outstanding," and said he is convinced there are few parents anywhere who will do as thorough of a job teaching farm safety as the volunteers will do Saturday.
"The parents are too busy, sidetracked and don't have a complete inventory of the dangers at hand to talk to their kids about it," he said. "I'm highly disappointed."
Even so, chairman Trimble promised an eventful and worthwhile time for farm children at the camp.
"I certainly encourage people to come," he said. "Everything's free, it'll be fun, and you'll learn some things that'll make your life happier in the end."
For more information about the camp, or to sign up, contact the Safe Kids Coalition at 544-3282.
E-mail: ehughes@lnpnews.com