Abstract
Steep slopes are the main cause of rollover incidents in agriculture. Targeted safety signs have been developed to warn machinery operators against risky slopes. However, machinery user’s manuals and road signs report information regarding slope steepness in two different ways, by using the tilt angle in degrees and the slope percentage, respectively. In this study, we investigated the comprehension of safety signs depicting critical slopes, either in degrees or as percent values in a group of Italian agricultural machinery operators while considering the possible influence of previous experience with agricultural machinery, previous incidents, and on-farm occupation. Eighteen tractor and self-propelled machinery operators were administered graphical representations of seven slope angles in a randomized order and then were asked to estimate the slope steepness as both a tilt angle and a slope percentage. The participants tended to overestimate slope steepness in degrees, whereas the opposite was true for percentages. Farmers who were previously involved in a machinery-related incident were more accurate in their estimates. The present results raise some considerations regarding the need to redesign safety communication and to promote targeted training interventions.
Highlights
Agriculture is one of the most dangerous industries, with an incident rate that is nearly triple that of other sectors, both in the United States and in the European Union [1,2]
In the Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals [40], the well-known road sign warning against a dangerous slope depicts the slope in terms of a percent value. Based on these previous considerations, the present study investigated which kind of graphical representation of slope steepness, i.e., the tilt angle in degrees or a slope percentage, in a safety sign that was administered to a group of agricultural machinery operators was more comprehensible
Previous research has reported a high rate of tractor rollover incidents in agriculture that are caused by a steep slope [1], and safety signs play a key role in warning users against these hazards [52]
Summary
Agriculture is one of the most dangerous industries, with an incident rate that is nearly triple that of other sectors, both in the United States and in the European Union [1,2]. 80% of all incidents are caused by farm machinery, and tractors are involved in most of the fatalities [3,4], with rollovers predominating [5]. The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) reported approximately 130 tractor rollover incidents per year in the United States [6]; Darçın and Darçın [7]. Previous studies showed that agricultural machinery operators often disregard the steepness of terrain [13,14,15] and they tend to be inaccurate
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