Fatal Farm Accident - underage worker

HOMER, N.Y. -- When his boss found him, Alex Smith was pinned under a bale of hay and a hydraulic lift bucket.

The 14-year-old boy had been preparing bales of hay to feed cows on July 1, 2015 at the Park Family Farm in Homer when the accident happened.

Smith was crushed and killed. Farm owner Luke Park told the New York State Police that when he found the Smith's body, the engine of the New Holland LS170 Skid Loader the boy had been operating was still running, reported state Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman.

The lift bucket on the skid loader itself weighs between 300 and 500 pounds depending the model, according to a New Holland website. Hay bales can vary greatly in weight, from as little as less than 100 pounds to more than 1,500 pounds depending on the size and density of hay, according to the various state Cooperative Extension offices.

A year later, Park has been charged with violating child labor laws in connection to Smith's death.

Park was arrested this week and charged with violating labor laws and falsifying business records. He is accused of letting Smith use a machine with a hydraulic lift and fork attachment -- equipment state law "explicitly" prohibits minors from using, Schneiderman said.

"Child labor laws were enacted to protect the safety of our children and to avoid terrible yet foreseeable tragedies like the one alleged in this case," he said. "Adults have a responsibility to protect our children, and when an employer places a minor in harm's way, that employer will be held responsible and prosecuted."

In addition to charges related to Smith's death, the state accused Park of committing other labor law violations.

Park is accused of requiring minors who worked at his dairy farm to work 60 hours a week, Schneiderman said. State law prohibits 16 and 17 year olds from working more than 48 hours when school is out of session.

Investigators reviewed the farm's records and learned "many" employees were paid off-the-books, Schneiderman said. The state has charged Park with underpaying his unemployment insurance contributions by over $9,000.

Park was charged with eight counts of falsifying business records and filing false unemployment insurance contribution returns with the state, all felonies. He was also charged with endangering the welfare of a child, illegal hours of work for minors, prohibited employment of minors and the willful failure to pay unemployment insurance contributions, all misdemeanors.

Park was arraigned in Homer Town Court and released. He is scheduled to reappear in court on Aug. 16.

The state Department of Labor assisted with the investigation. State Labor Commissioner Roberta Reardon said in a news release that the case was reminder that child labor laws exist "for a very good reason."

According to an obituary posted on X101 Always Classic, Smith loved farming, fireworks and outdoor sports. He would've been a freshman at Homer High School.

He should go to prison for life. His farm should be confiscated. Working kids 60 hrs a week? Cheating on taxes? The scumbag is a one man crime wave.

Terrible thing to have happen for all involved.
When I first started reading into the write up, I thought, he was probably part time help hired on by the neighbor as a favor, but that doesn't seem to be the case. If he had several underage workers working there, under paid them in one way or another, and severely overworked them, he had it coming. May the state come after him for all they can if that is the case. Requiring a minor to work 60 hours a week is nuts.

So if the kid is a minor, is it the employers fault for working him 60hrs or the parent for allowing the kid to work 60hrs. Don't get me wrong, the guy made a lot of important mistakes, most of them irrelevant to the accident but ultimately cost a kid his life, a real sad deal.

It's a very, very, very unfortunate accident and me the young man rest in peace.

My father was killed in a farm accident when I was 10, leaving my mother to raise and fend for five children on her own. We also lost that farm. I was out mowing lawns with power mowers and helping out on farms at the age of 11 or 12. The money went to help keep a roof over our heads, help put food in our mouths, help keep clothes on our backs, and other things. I don't know the situation, but looking back on it, I don't dislike or hate anyone that helped me help my family or helped my family stay off of welfare, taught and mentored me, gave me some life experiences that I will always cherish and carry until my end. I don't hate my late father for teaching, giving me that ethic to help my help and love my family that I still have today at the age of 56.

Good bless this young man in his early, unfortunate, and untimely death. May his family always cherish the time and memories that they had with him on this earth, and may they be together again in the next. Life on this earth isn't perfect.

Mark

Sounds like the fellow was pushing the limits of the law in several areas. The thing is I really wonder about how the child labor laws are going. Many complain about how the younger generation is lazy/won't work but with the law the way they are how can they find work in the country???? Not enough McDonald's to hire all the teens that may want to work.

The labor laws were a great concern to us on this farm. We have done several things to avoid any conflicts.

1) No none family member under 18 is allowed to work on the farm for wages or even free.

2) All the Grand kids are part owners in the corporation. This way they are working on their own farm as far as the law is concerned. In some states a farm that is incorporated can be outside the family farm exemption for related family children working.

It is a shame that the young kid lost his life and he may not have had enough experience to operate the skid loader by himself or it may have simply been poor judgement on several peoples parts but I doubt there was any evil intent involved. Reading the article it would appear the state is only worried about collecting taxes and whether or not an extra ounce or two of blood can be squeezed from that particular turnip, no one in state government is concerned about ''child welfare'', only their own welfare. In the end the farmer was supplying jobs to young people who probably needed those jobs, now they will be without jobs and the Farmer will be vilified for giving employment to willing workers.

Something not mentioned- safety devices must have been bypassed for this to happen?

Sad that this young fellow lost his life at work . Young or old , covered by comparison or not , accidents happen in work places every day, and not just farms . My question is , how can a young person get exsperence operating a skid , or tractor loader , if they are forbidden to run one . For myself , farm raised , we started running farm tractors to pull wagons and cultivate at 8, and had become competent operators , that could do most any tractor related kid by 11 or 12. I even hired out to a Dairyfarm when I was 13 , and spent the summer cutting , raking , and baling hay. Now a days my parents would be guilty of some crime of child neglect , and the farmer I worked for guilty of child labour laws, but I loved it , and I was well trained . This is just a sad accident, and remember , more kids will get killed having fun with motor bikes , ATV , and boats , then will get killed working. But that's okey , because, it is a leisure activitie , and not work . To die at work is bad , to get kill at play , is some how acceptable ?

This self-described "family farm" sounds like more of a sweatshop than a family farm.

Great points.

This is tragic and I pray for comfort for the boys family. I'm not sure what to think about this story. I've learned that reporters seldom tell the whole story, especially from some parts of the country. It sounds like the state is more worried about lost tax revenue than the value of the boys life. The article isn't clear on several things. They say the boy loved farming, the farmer may have been helping the boy have an opportunity that he wouldn't have had otherwise. So many times we jump to conclusions by just reading an opinion of one person. There are many more children killed in the inner cities by not learning a trade. I'm sure we will soon hear of children being injured or killed by playing this pokyman game that's popular now. I don't mean to trivialize this young man's death, I'm just putting in perspective.
When I was 14 I was working 60+ hours a week and operating equipment, there were several young people that worked on the 16000 acre farm. Most of us needed the job to help support our families. Times were different then and common sense was more common but I will always be grateful for that job and the things I learned.

Where were the kids parents??? I would have some say if my boy were operating equipment at that age and working a job. I support letting your child work with you the parent but under very controlled situations.

You make some great points and I was driving tractors and operating equipment when I could barely reach the pedals and I used to do things like rake and haul hay for other farmers in the neighborhood too when I was 12 or 13.That said even back in those days there were some farmers my dad would not let me work for because they were reckless or he knew they couldn't care less about safety.

Reading this I can think of 2 ways this would happen first he had the bale in the air came out under to cut the twine or the more likely is he didn't have his seat belt on and got thrown out under the bale. It would be nice to have more information and maybe this could have been prevented safety has changed a lot since I grew up but also machines are faster and more powerful.
One other thing here is the operation he is hiring non family members and it seems like they are throwing everything at him hoping something sticks.
I have Amish neighbors so far he has almost cut one girls legs off did manage to shear a couple of toes of one boy and split another ones skull open. His brother is very sick from spray on back sprayer slopping on him from not using a lid . Also another was killed in a fall from a silo. He is running a metal shop yet there not bothered by anybody because this is a family business . So it seems you can kill or maim the hired man as long as he is a relative not some kid hired for the summer.
It is an unfortunate tragedy and will certainly be made worse by the media and Lawyers.

Yet people moan about the death of the family farm, and how they can't find any good help...

If you have to keep the kids cooped up in the house strapped to the couch playing video games until they're 18, it's no wonder they go out into the world not knowing how to do anything, no skills, no interest in trades or agriculture.

Accidents like this should serve as a message to train your kids better, and make sure your equipment is up to snuff, but they don't. The lesson isn't "don't walk under the big heavy thing being held up in air," it's, "you can't be trusted to do anything important, go in the house and play video games."

All we want to do in this society is take everything away when something bad happens.

It always amazes me just how far from reality this board is, or maybe how abundant we have become. I have been driving tractors for as long as I can remember. I know I drove Dad's SC Case LONG before I could pull the clutch back. My Granddaughter has been driving tractors since she was 9.
14 is by no means to young to be earning a real wage. It wasn't that many years ago, at age 14 you were a MAN!
I am sorry for about his passing, but the to hear most of you, it sounds like you would want him glued to the TV until he is 18 or 20, then wonder why he can't find work.

It is odvious that you wern't raised on a farm. You don't plant, harvest, and feed crops 9:00 to 5:00 five days a week. Dairy farming is a 24-7-365 job.

I too worked 60+ hours a week, so did most of my kids. My kids just did it by working several jobs to hide it from the laws. My guess is the kids are the ones that asked to work and the farmer just let them work as much as they wanted and tried to make it look legal. It's a terrible trgedy and it will certainly be made worse by the media and whoever is pushing these charges mostly to get their conviction rate up.

Sounds like every family farm I've been on in my life. To many people think farming is a cross between "Dallas" and "Little House on the Prairie".

Our AG Eric Scheiderman, here in NY is a headhunter, and capitalizes on sensationalism to further his ambitions to become gov. of NY. It's too bad he doesn't go after all the crooked politicions in this state, but if he did, he wouldn't acheive his goal to become gov.
The artical as posted is very bias and presents only half of the story. Dairy farming is NOT a 40hr a week job. If they all punched out at 5:00 each day, Mr. Parks would be charged with animal crulity.
Sorry to hear that the young man was killed, but I bet he was enjoying his job and responsibilities. There was no indication of how the lad ended up under the bucket of the skidsteer, and seams that knowone tried to solve that mystery.
I was also raised in a dairy farm atmosphere and was operating equipment solo at age 8 and learned about responsibilities and getting the job done rather than worrying about what time it was. For me it was great to climb on the Case LA with a disc harrow or springtooth, at sunrise and see the muffler glowing cherry red after dark and hear the sound of the tractor echo off the woods and the sound of a disc blade scratching over a rock, and smell the soul being worked, especially in the evening.
Loren

I am all for kids working but unfortunately in today's world a lot of kids lack common sense. Also try to find a kid that has grown up on a farm. Working in factories you learn real quick how dumb kids can be . I don't know how well this kid was trained but even forklift drivers have to be certified for a reason. In our area they have schools so kids can be certified to drive similar to drivers ed . It's a lot different between a kid that grew up on a farm and a city kid. Back in the day those were sent to the hay mow till the got experience. I know myself that I take a lot for granted growing up on a farm but any hired help i made sure they stayed safe

The same here....At an age far less than 14 both I and my brother were working 60 plus hours per week on our farm during our summer vacation....If Dad ran out of work the neighbors had us all the time....Its a different world today...We grew up knowing the dangers..What happened is sad..

are you gonna vote for billery and hitlery ?

Sad story indeed. Lawyers will have a field day with this one !

I'm not a big fan of skid steers because I do a lot of lifting with loaders and sure do not want to be entering and exiting under my load ! I do see some now, like JCB make side entry models.

(quoted from post at 00:04:38 07/14/16)
He should go to prison for life. His farm should be confiscated. Working kids 60 hrs a week? Cheating on taxes? The scumbag is a one man crime wave.

Click to expand...

Man you would have really hated my father! I guess Dad didn't cheat on taxes but he despised the government and it wouldn't surprise me if he found a way to get to them somehow.

"The state has charged Park with underpaying his unemployment insurance contributions by over $9,000."

That would be about $63,000 in wages paid to employees that he didn't pay unemployment insurance on? Probably between 500 to 1,200 hours at high school kids wages?

Methinks you are being facetious. When I was 8 years old we moved back to the farm and 70-80 hours a week were the norm. I have to admit
we didn't have the sophisticated machinery we have today that requires more knowledge on how to operate. Too much work is not going to hurt
a 14 year old but proper training is certainly needed. Like most of us we do things we know we shouldn't and sometimes we get caught.
Tragedies like this are bad but will never be totally eliminated.

This is just a sad accident, and remember , more kids will get killed having fun with motor bikes , ATV , and boats , then will get killed working. But that's okey , because, it is a leisure activitie , and not work . To die at work is bad , to get kill at play , is some how acceptable ?

Click to expand...

That is very true. I personally know of 2 kids that died playing sports and a few more that were killed in ATV accidents. All the laws in the world don't prevent death. They only make money for the courts and lawyers. They will be the only winners in this tragedy. As bad as this boys death was, I bet that the others will remember it the rest of their lives and just maybe it will prevent one of them from making a foolish mistake that might cost them their life. That's something that can't be known.

Never worked on a farm, have you?

School is out and 60 hours a week is a light week. The work has to get done no matter WHAT the stinking State of NY says. One thing you can rest assured about, however, is because of this tragedy, this man's life will most likely be ruined. I could give you a little history on the NY AG office and how it would pertain to this case, but that would probably go over the political line for this forum and could possibly get ME sued by the AG. So I'll just say, take a deep breath and calm down, my friend. Rest assured, this man's life WILL be ruined.

same here too ,really sad when someone gets maimed for life or kilt, It could be the tractor rolled forward and pined the kid , and killed him ,that can happen so easily .. , when I was a teenager ,HONESTLY, the only death I can recall in our county from farming was a 80 yr. old granpa, unloading silage and got mangled in the powershaft,that was a grisly fatal run for the fire dept. . I can name 15 or 20 or more kids that got killed because of car vses train , motorcycle and car hi speed wrecks of stupidity that we all were guilty of but threu the grace of GOD survived ,.we used to ride the jd 30 combine , our feet was planted on the gearbox shield and we held on to the grain bin and watched the grain fill the bin , I recall one time the beagles jumped a rabbit and the poor rabbit jumped into the runnin combine,, it was n't long fur came out onto the soybeans in the bin,. LOL ,. DAd and Mom and all of Us would scold one another if we got to close to any moving belt chain or moving part .my brothers and I were hefting bales at age 13, before that , at around age 4 goin on 5 , Dad Cuzin ARch , Told me one day , that he needed a tractor driver to help pikup hay ,and asked me if I wanted to drive ,, I lokt at him and dad , and I said " do you think I can? " .. Arch , jovially grabbed me by the waist and placed me on the seat at thre same time, Saying "why hale yes , I know you can drive, just watch us and do what we tell ya" it was a sc case, that was a real sweetheart,. we were in a near level field along the ohio river, I wuld hit the kill switch and my cusin gary would hit the starter button when we needed to stop or go ..I gotta take back what I said about young lives dying ,. a couple yrs later the o -higher and higher (OHIO)would floodthe very bottomland plain we were in, a hired hand Chris with 4 daughters and a sweet wife,vincentmy cusin whowas getting married in may , and my cusin Gary were all drowned while using a motorboat to go back and forth to care for the cattle on the hill , the prop hung up in the top strand of barb wire fence, as they struggled to get it free in the windy choppy waterthey must have caused the boat to take on water , because of weight distribution , they were 1000 ft from land in water no more than 6ft,but the temps was n the 20s , hyperthermia got them, Arch , was on thebackporch,when he saw it happen, he had pneumonia, all he could do was call, the sheriff and summon a boat, by the time helparrived it was pitch dark, and no one could be found, the current carried Vincent some 15 miles when he was found 3 weeks after all the other funerals were over.

Don't know much about farm taxes either, do you? This is not meant to be insulting, just a statement.

clarification , only 3 drowned ,Chris 'S little girls and wife were safe and sound and hi and dry at home,.

I was thinking about this and remembered when I was young. We were putting hay up at a neighbor and there was a kid maybe around 5 he got to close to a pto shaft and my uncle yelled at him to get away when he didn't listen my uncle grabbed him and over the knee he went. That day he and every kid around develop a new respect for both safety and my uncle. That was an education that city kids don't get and now a days can't be taught.

Seems more than a few here are jealous. Having an hourly worker being underpaid and no overtime is a dream for most employers. Dairy farming is a seven day a week full time job, whether you have 6 or 600 cows, but try to spread the wealth around. Maybe because I'm close to 70 than 17, I know I'm not as fast as I was when I was younger, BUT, I am a lot wiser.

Go read what you guys have written. GREED comes to mind here. It's so important that you make a bigger profit that kids can die for your bottom line. That's what comes across! Subsidies are not the only reason city people don't like farmers in general. You want to blame the family of the kid, his parents. You want to blame the state. What about the criminal who was running a sweat shop out of greed? What about the criminal evading taxes out of greed? He's just supposed to get a pass because he's a farmer? Now I really don't care if you get mad at me. Heck I'm irate over the sheer greed I'm reading here! Most of you have shown that you have no cause to yell about greedy companies because you are no better, not one little bit! They did not pass those child labor laws and include farming because farmers were saints. The did it to protect kids from you guys!

Rick

Y'all seem to be willing to give this outfit a pass just because they're in agriculture. It sounds to me like this is no small-scale dairy farm with a few dozen cows, if those even exist today. This operation, like pretty much all dairies these days, is an industrial-scale operation. Exactly why shouldn't industrial farms be held to the same standards as other industries?

If a fourteen year old kid working unsupervised in a sheet metal stamping plant lost his hands in a press, you would be justifiably outraged. Yet a kid gets killed operating a dangerous piece of equipment at a dairy and it's OK. What's the difference?

And as for the dairy farmer not paying unemployment insurance, was he stiffing the state or was he really stiffing his employees? In the end, it's just another symptom of callousness towards his workers.

For what it's worth, I did work on the family farm as a teenager. I did put in 60 hour weeks in the summer. I did operate heavy farm and construction equipment, often unsupervised for hours at a time. And yes, I did survive with all my limbs intact. But not everyone I grew up with did.

I'm kind surprised too. It sounds like he had many teens working for him, and was under paying them all, and over working them. Atleast here, for farm work you don't have to pay time and a half over 40. To me it sounds like the kids weren't trained very well for safety, and it sounds like he was knowingly begging a few laws.

In my mind, he is the kind that gives all farmers a black eye, and should be prosecuted. I'm sure there is more to the story, but this is based off what I know.

Donovan from Wisconsin

oldtanker- Thanks. you said it more eloquently than I could.

I also want to say thank you Rick, very well said.

(quoted from post at 17:17:20 07/14/16) Go read what you guys have written. GREED comes to mind here. It's so important that you make a bigger profit that kids can die for your bottom line. That's what comes across! Subsidies are not the only reason city people don't like farmers in general. You want to blame the family of the kid, his parents. You want to blame the state. What about the criminal who was running a sweat shop out of greed? What about the criminal evading taxes out of greed? He's just supposed to get a pass because he's a farmer? Now I really don't care if you get mad at me. Heck I'm irate over the sheer greed I'm reading here! Most of you have shown that you have no cause to yell about greedy companies because you are no better, not one little bit! They did not pass those child labor laws and include farming because farmers were saints. The did it to protect kids from you guys!

Rick

Click to expand...

You may be right on all counts but the article said that the state was ACCUSING him of the violations. Last I read the Constitution a person is innocent until proven guilty. There is a lot that may or may not have been said in the article. Who knows the kid may have been supposed to be on the skid steer. The writer implies that it was OK but they may just be his lib idea. I'll let the jury decide. I really don't care if you think I'm greedy or not, chances are I'm a lot more charitable than most. It's sad that the kid died and it should never happen but so many don't think twice about a kid getting killed in the city from negligence but somehow it's worse when it happens on the farm?? I may make you sick and that's fine because your holier than thou attitude is just as sickening to me.

You may be right on all counts but the article said that the state was ACCUSING him of the violations. Last I read the Constitution a person is innocent until proven guilty. There is a lot that may or may not have been said in the article. Who knows the kid may have been supposed to be on the skid steer. The writer implies that it was OK but they may just be his lib idea. I'll let the jury decide. I really don't care if you think I'm greedy or not, chances are I'm a lot more charitable than most. It's sad that the kid died and it should never happen but so many don't think twice about a kid getting killed in the city from negligence but somehow it's worse when it happens on the farm?? I may make you sick and that's fine because your holier than thou attitude is just as sickening to me.

Click to expand...

I meant to say that he may NOT have supposed to be on the loader. Also why does the word lib e ral not go through?