Not only does one the elements to contend with, but each day there’s the danger of being hurt or even killed when working with machinery. Tractors are usually quite safe when handled properly, but dangerous if operated incorrectly. Each year many people are unnecessarily killed or injured because of tractor accidents.
You may think that most accidents are caused by driver incompetence, stupidity, ignorance of correct procedures, or just plain carelessness.However, that the major causes are tractors rolling or tipping over.
It’s interesting to note that tractors not only roll over sideways but also backwards when travelling over steep and hilly countryside. A study has shown that more than half of the accidents happen on flat or slightly sloping terrain.
Without roll-over protection and seatbelts, drivers and passengers stand little chance of escaping without being injured or killed.
A study of tractor accidents found that nearly three out of four of the deaths were caused by tractors overturning. A further one in every five died from falling off tractors.
Some of these accidents children were driving; others were passengers or were riding on a trailer. It’s actually against the law to allow a person to ride as a passenger on a tractor, unless each passenger is provided with:
- A seat of adequate strength, either fitted with a backrest or so shaped as to prevent the passenger slipping from the seat, and
- Adequate and convenient footrests and hand holds for the passenger.
A brief overview…
- Around 60-70% of accidents on farms involve tractors.
- More than half the accidents happen on flat or slightly sloping terrain.
- Most of those lives would have been saved if roll-over protection had been fitted.
- Nearly one in every six of those killed were children.
- Farm-related injury deaths cost the Australian economy $651 million (2008 dollars) in the four years from 2001–2004.
- Around 90 persons die from non-intentional injury on Australian farms each year.Correct training in Machinery Operations and OH&S procedures will reduce these statistic considerably.