Falls From Agricultural Machinery: Risk Factors Related to Work Experience, Worked Hours, and Operators’ Behavior

Abstract

Objective We investigated the risk factors for falls when egressing from agricultural tractors, analyzing the role played by worked hours, work experience, operators' behavior, and near misses. Background Many accidents occur within the agricultural sector each year. Among them, falls while dismounting the tractor represent a major source of injuries. Previous studies pointed out frequent hazardous movements and incorrect behaviors adopted by operators to exit the tractor cab. However, less is known about the determinants of such behaviors. In addition, near misses are known to be important predictors of accidents, but they have been under-investigated in the agricultural sector in general and as concerns falls in particular. Method A questionnaire assessing dismounting behaviors, previous accidents and near misses, and participants' relation with work was administered to a sample of Italian tractor operators ( n = 286). Results A mediated model showed that worked hours increase unsafe behaviors, whereas work experience decreases them. Unsafe behaviors in turn show a positive association with accidents, via the mediation of near misses. Conclusions We gave a novel contribution to the knowledge of the chain of events leading to fall accidents in the agricultural sector, which is one of the most hazardous industries. Applications Besides tractor design improvements, preventive training interventions may focus on the redesign of the actual working strategies and the adoption of engaging training methods in the use of machinery to optimize the learning of safety practices and safe behaviors.

An ergonomic approach to sustainable development: The role of information environment and social‐psychological variables in the adoption of agri‐environmental innovations

“…Agricultural exhibitions play an important role in the life of Italian small country towns, where they often combine amusement elements, breeding stock exhibitions and sports happenings, with lectures, seminars, and conferences. These features make this kind of agricultural exhibitions a suitable place for survey and data collection (Caffaro, Micheletti Cremasco, Roccato, & Cavallo, ; Cavallo, Görücü, & Murphy, ; Ferrari, Spinelli, Cavallo, & Magagnotti, ; Reichardt & Jürgens, ; Reichardt, Jürgens, Klöble, Hüter, & Moser, ).…”

“…Table 1 conferences. These features make this kind of agricultural exhibitions a suitable place for survey and data collection (Caffaro, Micheletti Cremasco, Roccato, & Cavallo, 2018;Cavallo, Görücü, & Murphy, 2015;Ferrari, Spinelli, Cavallo, & Magagnotti, 2012;Reichardt, Jürgens, Klöble, Hüter, & Moser, 2009).…”

The Effects of Individual Variables, Farming System Characteristics and Perceived Barriers on Actual Use of Smart Farming Technologies: Evidence from the Piedmont Region, Northwestern Italy

“…Since the agricultural population is spread across the country and has varying operating schedules, agricultural machinery exhibitions are one of the best occasions where a large and wide-ranging group of farmers, agricultural workers and other agricultural business operators come together. Therefore, such events provide a suitable place to conduct surveys and other data collection activities [24,38,42,43].…”

“…The survey was carried out in the Piedmont region, Northwestern Italy, and it involved a non-random sample of farm operators, selected among the visitors of an agricultural exhibition. Previous studies have shown that farmers from the Piedmont can be usefully surveyed to analyze the dynamics of the Italian farming population [42,43].…”

Behavior modelling and sensing for machinery operations using smartphone’s sensor data: A case study of forage maize sowing

“…Currently, GNSS [4][5][6] and ISOBUS [7,8] based fleet management are widely used and can realize real-time visibility of vehicle location, status, and diagnostics. However, it cannot record subtle but important operating behaviors [9] , such as longtime stalling or idling, sudden acceleration, sharp turning, and etc. [10] .…”