Retrofitting Agricultural Tractors with Aftermarket Weather Cabins: Safety Issues for Manufacturers and Users

Abstract

Despite the effort of governments in promoting stricter safety requirements to reduce the number of accidents among farmers, agriculture still represents a very hazardous sector worldwide. In particular, the increasing importance of safety in the agriculture activities has been characterizing this sector both from the equipment manufacturers' and from users' point of view, since the use of tractors is recognized as the main cause of fatalities. In fact, tractor overturn associated with the absence or the improper use of the rollover protective structure (ROPS) represents the prevalent cause of this phenomenon. In this study we focused our attention on the use of aftermarket weather cabins and their interferential relationship with the tractor's protective structure. Actually, although the use of weather cabins temporarily installed on tractors for specific needs is very common among farmers, there is a lack of a normative framework that can provide safety requirements for both users and cabin manufacturers. In detail, taking the cue from the issues emerged in a specific working group led by the National Institute for Insurance against Accidents at Work in Italy, the manuscript analyzes the hazardous situations that might arise when using weather cabins, discussing the safety measures aimed at guaranteeing a correct safety assessment.