Woman Killed in Accident While Loading Hay on Montana Ranch
A woman lost her life in Montana while loading hay alone on a ranch.
On Jan. 3, around 7:30 am the Gallatin County Sheriff’s Office received a call of a woman reportedly trapped between a hay bale and a truck on a ranch near Bozeman.
The sheriff’s office confirmed that Kelsey Driscoll, 30, was the victim. Driscoll was working alone on the Copper Spring Ranch loading hay when she slipped and was pinned between the truck bed and hay bales.
Other ranch employees attempted to contact Driscoll on her cellphone, when they heard no response they looked for her. Her co-workers found her deceased at the scene.
The reported cause of death was blunt force trauma.
Driscoll was originally from Spokane, Washington and had been living in Bozeman for the past year while working on the ranch. Funeral services will be held in Spokane.
Farm and Ranch Safety
This tragic death is an important reminder that safety should be priority when working on farms and ranches.
Each day approximately 100 injuries happen to agricultural workers that result in lost work time, according to data from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). Unfortunately deaths are not uncommon in agriculture either with 417 people dying in 2016, resulting in a death rate of 21.4 deaths per 100,000 workers. NIOSH indicates the vast majority of these deaths were a result from vehicle rollovers. Farm safety is vital to all farm stakeholders from owners to managers to employees to visitors.
Here are some articles that provide safety tips and resources for farmers and ranchers:
- Don’t Overlook Employee Safety
- Put Farm Safety into Practice
- First Aid Kits for Production Agriculture
- 3 Silage Safety Tips
- Farm Safety Week: No One Can Take Your Place
- Safety in Working and Handling Livestock
- Stuck in the Mud? Think Safety First
- Summer Safety Working on the Farm
