Farm tractors are large, heavy, powerful vehicles with a high center of gravity. When driven carelessly on sloping, irregular, or slippery ground, tractors can overturn sideways and cause the death by crush asphyxia of the driver or passengers, especially if appropriate safety equipment is not fitted or used. The aim of this review is to focus on the diagnostic difficulties with which coroners and forensic pathologists have to cope when a confirmation of crush asphyxia after tractor side rollover is required by judicial authorities. Forensic investigations in such cases must involve the meticulous analysis of the death scene and the mechanical characteristics of the vehicle together with accurate postmortem and toxicological examination.
Abstract:In many productive sectors, ensuring a safe working environment is still an underestimated problem, and especially so in farming. A lack of attention to safety and poor risk awareness by operators represents a crucial problem, which results in numerous serious injuries and fatal accidents. The Demetra project, involving the collaboration of the Regional Directorate of INAIL (National Institute for Insurance against Accidents at Work), aims to devise operational solutions to evaluate the risk of accidents in agricultural work and analyze the dynamics of occupational accidents by using an observational method to help farmers ensure optimal safety levels. The challenge of the project is to support farmers with tools designed to encourage good safety management in the agricultural workplaces.
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