By Connor Lynch
TWEED — Three years ago, seven-year-old Emily Trudeau was riding along with her dad in the tractor on the family beef farm at Tweed, near Belleville. They were rolling through a field when the tractor hit a bump. Emily bounced from her seat, hit the door which swung open, and fell under the moving tractor.
Emergency services initially missed the site of the accident, which was on a field with an unmarked entrance. Emily’s mother, Angela, had to flag down the ambulance.
Emily later died in hospital.
Members of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture, local farmers, and Scott Trudeau, Emily’s father, have kicked off an effort to get help faster on the farm in the case of an emergency.
The Farm 911 committee is launching its plan to bring farm signage to every unmarked entrance to every field in Northumberland County, Hastings County, Prince Edward County and Lennox & Addington County.
Details will be released at the Hastings County Farm Show and Plowing Match on Aug. 23.
The signs would all be entered into a geographic mapping system. That will ensure that if emergency services are called, they will know exactly where they need to be.
Though the signs are already available in Ontario, the committee is urging local councils to make them more readily available to farmers. Costs for the signs would vary, depending on if municipalities make them available for free or charge a fee.
