Farmer Crushed Against Tractor Tire by Gravity Flow Wagon Box while Unhitching

Details

• Personal Author:
  Madsen, Murray D. ; Rautiainen, Risto
• Corporate Authors:
  Iowa Fatality Assessment & Control Evaluation Program (Iowa FACE) ; University of Iowa. College of Public Health. Department of Occupational and Environmental Health
• Description:
  A 23-year-old, part-time farmer from northeast Iowa was fatally injured while working alone on his farmstead late in the spring of 2005. He had towed a gravity-flow wagon filled with 150 bushels (5.3 m3) of shelled corn behind his 70 Hp (52 kw) row-crop tractor to the top of a slight knoll in the gravel driveway between the house and machine storage shed. A cement block (silo stave) was placed in front of the right rear wheel of the wagon to block it from rolling forward when the wagon was unhooked from the tractor. Returning to the hitch area, the farmer pulled the hitch pin to disconnect the wagon from the tractor. The wagon moved forward crushing him against the tractor's left rear wheel. The farmer was found by his brother, who had come to meet him at the farm. The brother immediately telephoned for emergency assistance. First responders found the tractor with its engine still running, its transmission in neutral, and its brake set. The left front corner of the fully loaded gravity-flow box pressed against the farmer's chest, pinning him with his back against the tread of the left rear tire of the tractor. The wagon was pulled back about 8-feet from the tractor to free the victim. Resuscitation efforts at the scene were unsuccessful. RECOMMENDATIONS: 1. Providers of gravity flow wagons and users of them should consider equipping wagons with mechanical means such as wheel brakes or chocks to prevent unintended movement when they are unhitched on uneven or sloping terrain. 2. Tractor operators should securely block (chock) the rear axle wheels of wagons with appropriate chocks before unhitching a wheeled implement such as a wagon that could move on uneven or sloping terrain. 3. Farmers should evaluate the worksite and equipment to be used, preferring firm level terrain on which to work and uncomplicated equipment logistics.
• Subjects:
  Accident Prevention Accidents Accidents, Occupational Agriculture Emergency Responders Farmers Manufacturing And Industrial Facilities Occupational Health Personal Protective Equipment Safety Safety Management Workplace

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• Keywords:
  Accident-analysis Accident-prevention Agricultural-industry Agricultural-machinery Agricultural-workers Equipment-operators Injuries Injury-prevention Machine-operation OSHA Region 7 Protective-measures Rescue-measures Safety-education Safety-equipment Safety-measures Safety-monitoring Traumatic-injuries Work-analysis Work-areas Work-operations Work-performance Work-practices

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• FACE - NIOSH and State:
  FACE ; Agriculture ; Machine (All) ; Machine - Farming
• Series:
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Reports (FACE)
• Subseries:
  State
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHSFACE05IA034
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  Iowa ; OSHA Region 7
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-8
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20032601
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2008-100183
• Citation:
  Morgantown, WV: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, FACE 05IA034, 2006 Jun ; :1-7
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2006
• Performing Organization:
  Iowa Department of Public Health
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  11 - Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting - (NAICS)
• Start Date:
  1992/09/30
• End Date:
  2006/08/31
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:f494fed585fb50773efbe56c2012f6b1e1e5ca2b45e0c74cec3e274c038d5d8c053837f764343f994a1cfa482ccbb00a51cf6cb0b0a3001dd0a0b89288174169
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/166249/cdc_166249_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 286.54 KB ]