 One big appeal of farming is that it is often a family business, where the whole family works together. But the farm can also be a dangerous place for children. 23,000 children get seriously injured and over 100 die in farm-related accidents every year in the United States. Many of those are tractor-related. Almost all the accidents are preventable. The farmer must think of the tractor and its implements as his or her tools. It's what he or she uses to do their work. All workers keep their children away from any tool that can be dangerous. Carpenters don't let their children play near them, while they work with dangerous tools. Woodworkers don't let their children play with routers or table saws. Cooks don't let their children play near a hot stove or sharp knives. If you have children, there's a great pamphlet on creating safe play areas on farms. It was produced by the National Children's Center of the National Farm Medicine Center and the Marshfield Clinic Research Foundation. They have allowed us to include it on this DVD. The most important principle for you to follow to make sure your children are safe is never assume that children will remain where you last saw them. Be alert and shut the tractor down if children enter the work area. Never allow children to operate your tractor. There is no safe place for your children to ride on the tractor. Children under 12 should never be on a tractor, even when it is parked with the engine on. Safety experts suggest that the earliest a child should be on a tractor is when they're old enough to take and pass tractor safety education classes. The law in Washington state says that a young person must be 16 years of age before operating a tractor of greater than 20 PTO horsepower. And even then, they need training and supervision. Children, parents, grandparents and tractors are a tradition. There's no question about that. But it was never a good tradition. It's time to bury it. As others have suggested, it is easier to bury a tradition than bury a child. Especially your child. All it takes is a moment, but the sorrow and the grief lasts forever. There's only one principle from this section we need to remember. Children must be kept away from tractors and implements, always.