Farmer Slips Off Tractor Step Into Path of a Grain Semi Truck

Details

• Personal Author:
  Johnson, Wayne ; 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:
  In the fall of 1998 a 42-year-old farmer was killed while he was loading corn into a grain semi truck. Three men at the farm site were unloading their 3rd or 4th load of corn that morning. The victim was operating one tractor with an attached auger wagon, and was unloading corn from the wagon into the semi from the right side. Another farmer, also operating a tractor and auger wagon, was helping and unloading from the left side, while the truck driver was watching the level in his truck. They used two tractors and auger wagons to speed up loading of the semi. When the front hopper was full, the truck driver began to drive forward. As he was doing this, the victim climbed up the steps of his tractor, apparently to shut down the PTO power to the wagon, to avoid overfilling the truck. Suddenly the truck driver heard a yell, and looking in his right side mirror, he saw nothing, but in the right bubble mirror, he saw a pair of legs and immediately backed up his truck. Also at the same time, the helper on the left side of the truck realized something had happened and was making motions for the truck driver to back up. Evidently, the victim had slipped off the top step of his tractor and fallen backwards, landing immediately in front of the duel tires of the semi tractor as it was moving forward. The man was partially crushed in the right chest and abdomen, receiving significant internal injuries, which lead to his death a few hours later. It had been raining earlier in the day and the ground was very muddy. The victim also had mud on his boots, and a glob of mud was found on the top step of the tractor. He was initially conscious and talking after the accident, recalling how he slipped off the top step of the tractor. The man was taken to a large regional hospital out-of-state, yet died later that same day from severe bleeding and internal injuries. Recommendations based on our investigation are as follows: 1. Tractor manufacturers should give more attention to the safe design of steps and handrails to further increase operator safety. 2. Machinery operators should always maintain "three point contact" when mounting or dismounting equipment.
• Content Notes:
  Publication Date provided by FACE program
  
  not printed on the report.
  
  
• 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-machinery Agricultural-workers Injuries Injury-prevention OSHA Region 7 Personal-protective-equipment Protective-equipment Protective-measures Safety-education Safety-equipment Safety-measures Safety-monitoring Tractors Traumatic-injuries Work-analysis Work-areas Work-operations Work-performance Work-practices

  More +
• FACE - NIOSH and State:
  FACE ; Agriculture ; Falls ; Motor Vehicles
• Series:
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Reports (FACE)
• Subseries:
  State
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHSFACE98IA072
• 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:
  5 pdf pages
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20028300
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2009-106289
• 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 98IA072, 1999 Apr ; :1-3
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1999
• 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:f687fd8879f2456650098b228372aaf444a207cffb771d31c82d0b7bcd12c4bbe64d420a3526c09f698ad30a1189e164daf75a7ea7065b6bbed674434f32213b
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/166805/cdc_166805_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 191.95 KB ]