Agricultural Tractor Roll-Over Related Fatalities in Italy: Results from a 12 Years Analysis

Abstract

In Italy, about 160 fatal accidents per year have occurred recently in agriculture, most of them involving agricultural machinery. The most frequent cause of fatal events is the tractor overturning. One of the opportunities to monitor the trend of agricultural tractors fatal overturning is a meticulous search for information on the numerous web portals, at national and local level. In fact, in their information purposes are also included the recording, practically in real time, of significant details about each fatal event, such as the place of the accident, the year, the month and the day of the week of occurring, the victim’s age, gender and nationality, etc. This article is describing the results of the monitoring of fatal tractor overturning accidents in the period of 2008–2019 in Italy. In the 12 years of the survey, 1414 fatal accidents were recorded, most of them occurring in the spring and summer months. The region with the highest cumulative number of fatal events was Tuscany (143). The majority (58.8%) of the victims were over 60, while 71.4% of accidents occurred during field work. Most (57.6%) of the tractors involved in the fatal events did not have rollover protective structures (ROPS), while 19.4% were equipped with a two-post foldable front roll-bar, which, however, was in the lowered position at the time of the accident. In most cases, the tractors involved were obsolete and in poor maintenance conditions, and did not comply with general and specific laws on work safety. To improve the situation, the introduction of the tractor training certificate for the drivers and the periodical inspection for tractors, as well as the issuing of significant financial supports to encourage the replacement of the old models with modern more safe models, are the most effective actions to be put into practice.

Considering Human Variability in the Design of Safe Interaction with Agricultural Machinery: The Case of Foldable Roll-Over Protective Structure (FROPS) Manual Handling

“…The roll-over protective structures (ROPS), i.e., safety cab, frame, or roll-bar, are mechanical structures fitted on agricultural and forestry tractors. Together with a driver's retention system, the seatbelt, they avoid or limit the risks to the driver resulting from roll-over of the vehicle during normal use [3,4]. ROPSs have been adopted on tractors since the 1980s, when significant safety and health, and ergonomics progress had been introduced [5].…”

Fatal Tractor Accidents in the Agricultural Sector in Spain during the Past Decade

“…In the work presented by Faccinetti et al [26] on fatal accidents due to tractor rollover in Italy, they analysed, among other aspects, geographical differences. In their case, they also had a high incidence that was maintained over time, with a downward trend since 2013, as in our study.…”

Machinery Safety and Ergonomics: A Case Study Research to Augment Agricultural Tracklaying Tractors’ Safety and Usability

“…Following the procedure shown in the previous section, a PAS for facilitating the raising/lowering operations of a two-posts front FROPS to be used on tractors propelled and steered by endless tracks was developed. The choice of using a tracklaying tractor was made because of the diffusion of this type of equipment not only in the agriculture and forestry activities, but also for other types of works such as earthmoving, and the numerous cases of accidents due to the lack of ROPS or to the FROPS misuse [12]. In particular, as a reference, a tracklaying tractor having the following characteristics was used: unballasted mass (i.e., the weight of the tractor excluding optional accessories but including coolant, oils, fuel, tools, plus the protective structure) 2.962 kg; overall length 2.78 m; wheelbase 1.53 m; track-width 1.66 m.…”