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.
Highlights
Published: 19 April 2021In Italy, the gloomy record of the highest number of fatal accidents at work has always been disputed among the manufacturing, agricultural, and construction sectors
The results indicate that a rollover protective structures (ROPS)-equipped tractor is more effective at stopping an overturn at 90◦ than a nonROPS tractor, with an associated reduction in the injury severity in the event of a tractor overturning [16]
Notwithstanding most agricultural injuries are due to errors in the systems of safety, it was ascertained that training [34] and personal protective equipment and regulation of safety design, inspection/maintenance of workplaces, and mitigation devices play an important role in preventing agricultural injuries [35]
Summary
In Italy, the gloomy record of the highest number of fatal accidents at work has always been disputed among the manufacturing, agricultural, and construction sectors. Rondelli et al [3] report that out of 817 fatal accidents in Italy in the agricultural sector occurred between 2002 and 2012, 357 (43.7%) involved tractors, including 205 accidents due to overturning (57.4%). Myers et al [4] report that 1538 fatal events were recorded in the United States between 1992 and 2007 as a result of tractor overturning. In the United States, Helmkamp and Lundstrom [5] report that more than 75% of fatal accidents between 1997 and 2002 in West Virginia were caused by tractor overturning. Still in Turkey, in an analysis of 41 tractor-related fatalities reported between 2006 and 2009 by First Specialty
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