Farmer Dies Following a Tractor Rollover in West Virginia [97WV057]

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 26, 1997, a 61-year-old male farmer (victim) died of injuries sustained when the tractor he was driving rolled end-over-end and then barrel-rolled down a steep slope. The victim had gotten his tractor out of deep ruts in a field road and was driving uphill when his back tires slid over the edge of the hillside precipitating the rollover. He was working alone at the time of the incident. The tractor did not have rollover protective structures or a seat belt. The victim's sister became concerned when he did not arrive home before dusk and, along with a neighbor, searched the field in which he had been working. Upon finding the victim, they went to the victim's home and called the EMS. The EMS arrived within 27 minutes. With the approval of the sheriff's office, the EMS transported the victim to the local hospital where he was officially pronounced dead. The coroner estimated that the victim had been dead several hours before he was found and that he had died immediately after sustaining his injuries. Damage to the steering wheel and to the victim's head, neck, and chest suggest that the tractor steering wheel crushed the victim during the roll before he was ejected. The WV FACE Investigator concluded that, to reduce the likelihood of similar occurrences, the following guidelines should be followed by tractor owners: 1. Equip all tractors with rollover protective structures (ROPS) and a seat belt. 2. Evaluate environmental conditions and terrain prior to using field roads and make necessary adjustments to accommodate for them.
• Subjects:
  Accident Prevention Accidents Accidents, Occupational Agriculture Farmers Occupational Health Personal Protective Equipment Safety Safety Management Workplace
• Keywords:
  Accident-analysis Accident-prevention Agricultural-industry Agricultural-processes Agricultural-workers Injuries Injury-prevention OSHA Region 3 Personal-protective-equipment Protective-equipment Safety-education Safety-equipment Safety-measures Safety-monitoring Safety-programs Tractors Traumatic-injuries Work-analysis Work-areas Work-operations Work-performance Work-practices

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• FACE - NIOSH and State:
  FACE ; Agriculture
• Series:
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Reports (FACE)
• Subseries:
  State
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHSFACE97WV057
• 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:
  4 pdf pages
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20028642
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2013-108454
• 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 97WV057, 1997 Sep ; :1-4
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1997
• 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:f1f0b08b69441db21d9a81b973f8668a7e0fba74182764fd59f6ef827318f26700a9aa5bd0e2d1e7d3429cb592ba5a22d366a5f206382356e8e99112544ae081
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/166488/cdc_166488_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 67.95 KB ]