Front-end Tractor Attachments – Stats & Facts

FACTS

  1. Because of their high center of gravity, tractors are more susceptible to rolling or turning over than vehicles like passenger cars and trucks, which have a low center of gravity.
  2. While all tractor operators are at risk of overturning a tractor, highest rates of fatalities occur:
  • in farms involved in crop production
  • among farm family members
  • among older operators
  1. The most frequent causes of tractor-related deaths are side and rear overturns. The vehicles typically involved in these incidents are older tractors that are not equipped with Roll-Overprotective Structures (ROPS).
  2. Tractor roll-overs are one of the most common causes of injury and death on farms.
  3. Tractor overturn incidents can result in major injuries (crushing injuries, broken bones, and so on) and even death. 
  4. Side overturns are the most common type of tractor overturn incident. In a side overturn incident, a tractor rolls onto its side.
  5. The two major factors at play inside overturn incidents are center of gravity and centrifugal force. 

STATS

  • Tractor overturns are the leading cause of fatal injuries on US farms, resulting in an average of about 130 deaths each year.
  • 1 in 10 operators overturns a tractor in his or her lifetime.
  • 80% of deaths caused by tractor overturns involve experienced operators.
  • The 5-year average death rate was 4.9 deaths per 10,000 farms.
  • Deaths mostly occurred in the morning and in summer and fall months.
  • Ninety-one percent of all fatalities were to males.
  • Each year, an average of 132 American farm workers are crushed to death as tractors overturn during operation. 
  • If tractors without ROPS are not retrofitted, NIOSH estimates that 2,800 rollover-related deaths could occur during the period that these tractors remain in use (an estimated 31 years).
  • Forty percent of the 250 persons involved in unprotected tractor rollover incidents died. In contrast, only 2%, or one person died, of the 61 persons operating ROPS-equipped tractors that rolled over. 
  • The most common type of tractor accident is rollovers—The U.S. Department of Labor (USDL) reports that 44% of farm accidents are due to tractor rollovers.