Part-time Farmer Dies Following a Tractor Rollover in West Virginia

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  West Virginia Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Program (West Virginia FACE) ; West Virginia University. Center for Rural Emergency Medicine ; West Virginia. Department of Health & Human Resources
• Description:
  On July 23, 2002, a 74-year-old male part-time farmer (victim) died of injuries sustained when the tractor he was driving rolled over while mowing a hillside. The tractor was equipped with a side mount sickle-bar cutting attachment. With his left rear wheel on the downhill side, he was traversing a slope exceeding a 50% grade (27 degrees). Speed of travel was unknown but his right wheels ran over a woodchuck mound which increased the grade to approximately 60% (31 degrees). This shift placed the tractor's center of gravity (C.G.) outside of the tractor's stability baseline, causing it to roll downhill to the left and land on the victim. The tractor did not have a rollover protective structure (ROPS) or a seat belt. The victim's son-in-law came out to the field to check on the victim and found him lying on the ground shortly after being struck-by the tractor. He called EMS which arrived within minutes and transported the victim to a medical center were he died approximately 3 hours later. The cause of death was listed as traumatic arrest as a result of thoracic aortic disruption. The WV FACE investigator concluded that to reduce the likelihood of similar occurrences, the following guidelines should be observed by tractor owners: 1. Equip all tractors with rollover protective structures and a seat belt. 2. Consider permanently omitting steep areas from mowing.
• Subjects:
  Accident Prevention Accidents Accidents, Occupational Agriculture Farmers Occupational Health Safety Safety Management Workplace
• Keywords:
  Accident-analysis Accident-prevention Agricultural-industry Agricultural-machinery Agricultural-workers Equipment-operators Injuries Injury-prevention OSHA Region 3 Safety-education Safety-equipment Safety-measures Safety-monitoring Tractors Traumatic-injuries Work-analysis Work-areas Work-operations Work-performance Work-practices

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• FACE - NIOSH and State:
  FACE
• Series:
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Reports (FACE)
• Subseries:
  State
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHSFACE02WV024
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  West Virginia ; OSHA Region 3
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-4
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20028678
• 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 02WV024, 2002 Dec ; :1-4
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2003
• Performing Organization:
  West Virginia Department of Health & Human Services
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  11 - Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting - (NAICS)
• Start Date:
  1996/09/30
• End Date:
  2006/08/31
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:9d4f40cb1485c0899502a07eedd40b310598a09227e4a9e4aa552ca26e59a7345ea5ff7252d96e10d233558d9a18541aa8ac8ba8ae8d2811937025fdd5f58bf0
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/166466/cdc_166466_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 387.73 KB ]