Press Releases
Farm Safety Symposium ponders 'A Parent's Worst Nightmare'
For Immediate Release
Monday, March 2, 2015
For more information contact:
Ted Sloan
(502) 564-1138
FRANKFORT, Ky. – It’s a parent’s worst nightmare – a phone call or a knock on the front door from authorities bearing the news that a loved one has been killed or injured in an accident.
“A Parent’s Worst Nightmare” is the theme of the 2015 Louis Crosier Farm Safety Symposium at the Dixie Fire School in March. The symposium is scheduled for March 13 at 7 p.m. EDT in the RPC212 auditorium at Elizabethtown Community and Technical College.
“Whether on a tractor, or on an ATV, or in a vehicle, a moment’s carelessness can end a life or change it forever,” Agriculture Commissioner James Comer said. “In a time when drivers have more distractions than ever before, it’s imperative that we raise awareness of the dangers of distracted driving.”
Becky O’Krangley of Michigan will be the featured speaker. She was rescued by Hardin County emergency responders after a 2002 auto accident in which she was severely injured and her boyfriend was killed, said Dale Dobson, administrator of the Kentucky Department of Agriculture’s Farm and Home Safety Program. She visits Hardin County every year to thank local emergency service personnel for her rescue, Dobson said.
Other scheduled speakers include Warren Beeler, the KDA’s director of agriculture policy, whose daughter was killed in an auto accident; and Chuck Russell, a Hazard firefighter whose brother was killed in an ATV wreck.
The winners of the Ag Safety Awareness Challenge video contest will be announced at the symposium. First prize will be worth $250; second prize, $150; and third prize, $100. For more information, go to www.facebook.com/AgSafetyAwarenessChallenge.
The program for the symposium was assembled by the Dixie Ag Safety Team, made up of area FFA members, Dixie Fire School staff, and Kentucky Department of Agriculture employees, under the direction of Dylan Gibson, a former KDA intern.
