"452 children died on the job in the U.S. between 2003 and 2016", 20 December 2018

... in the United States... [a]bout 452 children died as a result of workplace injuries between 2003 and 2016, according to the Government Accountability Office. Seventy-three of those who died were age 12 or younger.

Children working in agriculture are killed at a far higher rate than their peers in other industries. Farmworkers make up less than a fifth of America’s child workforce... yet they suffered more deaths between 2003 and 2013 than all other child workers combined.

... Labor Department figures show the number of children working in the United States hit a post-recession high of 2.5 million in the summer of 2017... The figures likely undercount child labor in agriculture... Most children injured on farms were younger, below age 14. Two out of three of them were injured while working on their family farm...

The law includes protections for child laborers, although... there are few restrictions to working on a family farm. According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, “youths of any age may work at any time in any job on a farm owned or operated by their parents.”

... Farmworkers 15 and younger can’t operate a combine harvester or most larger tractors... There are exceptions for children who have been trained on certain tasks and machinery... Most deaths that occurred... involved motor vehicles...

According to the National Children’s Center for Rural and Agricultural Health and Safety, the death rate among child workers between the ages of 15 and 17 has stayed steady or risen on farms even as it has declined in other occupations....