Injuries and Fatalities Involving Loaders Operating Around Open Liquid and Agricultural Waste Storage Facilities

52 cases of intentional or unintentional entrance of front-end loaders into agricultural liquid storage facilities, including waste lagoons, on U.S. and Canadian agricultural operations were documented and analyzed. 47 of the cases were confirmed as fatal (90.4%). 50 cases were male (96.2%), with an average age of 40 years. Cases included structures such as manure lagoons, manure pits, rivers, lakes, ditches, and ponds. Skid steer loaders were the primary type of equipment identified (76.9%). No fewer than five incidents involved loaders being operated on frozen surfaces. The term case refers to an individual victim while incident may involve one or more victims.

For over 40 years, Purdue University's Agricultural Safety and Health Program (PUASHP) has been maintaining injury and fatality incident data involving agricultural confined spaces, including agricultural waste storage structures. To date, 2429 cases (victims), involving no fewer than 1431 (58.9%) fatalities have been documented. Each has involved a fatality, injury, and/or required emergency extraction from a confined space. Findings from the analysis of those data have been published elsewhere (Nour et al., 2022; Cheng et al., 2024; Haslett et al., 2025). One type of incident included in the database, though not frequent, that has been given considerable media attention has involved skid steer and front-end loaders ending up with the operator in liquid storage facilities, such as manure pits, open waste lagoons, and farm ponds. Because the design of most loader equipment, especially skid steer loaders that typically secure the operator physically within the operator's station, the steepness of containment walls, and the depth of the liquid storage structures, there have been few reported survivors. An investigation was undertaken to identify, document, and summarize these incidents to identify primary contributing causes and to explore prevention strategies. A total of 52 incidents that met search criteria, in which all involved cases of injury or death were identified. Of these cases, 90% were fatal; two were female, with an average victim age of 40. The primary structures involved were open collection pits at the end of free-stall dairy and beef barns and outside, inground, agricultural waste storage lagoons. Primary activities of the victim at the time of the incident were operating a skid steer loader, or other tractor mounted loader, conducting waste handling activities or lagoon berm management. It was concluded that the lack of operator awareness of the hazards associated with these structures, infrequency of tasks, lack of structural barriers designed to prevent direct vehicle access to liquid waste storage facilities, and the steep wall design of waste storage lagoons were significant contributing factors that required a high level of operator awareness, skill, and judgment, to avoid an incident. Recommendations included: Add warnings to skid steer loader safety signage and in operator manuals on the potential high risk of operating equipment in close proximity to on-farm liquid storage facilities. Post warnings on all sides of outdoor waste storage lagoons and ponds alerting equipment operators of the depth and steep incline of these structures. When feasible, install fences or other barriers to keep equipment a safe distance from the edge of open lagoons or ponds. Redesign or retrofit all open livestock housing that includes an aisle for scraping waste into pits, with both signage and barriers designed to prevent waste removal equipment from falling into storage structures below floor level.