A 79-year-old farmer (victim) died when the tractor he was driving overturned. On the day of the incident, he was driving a farm tractor equipped with a front-end loader on a public road. The tractor was not equipped with a rollover protective structure or a seat belt. The loader was equipped with a small general purpose bucket that was empty at the time of the incident. Although the tractor and loader were maintained in operating condition, photographs indicated general maintenance and repair was less than optimal. The speed that the tractor was being driven at the time of the incident could not be determined. Shortly before the incident occurred, the victim stopped at a stop sign at a T-intersection of a gravel road and a blacktop road. He briefly spoke with a local resident who had turned onto the gravel road. The victim and the local resident visited briefly as the victim indicated he was in a hurry. The victim made a left hand turn onto the blacktop road and proceeded south. After travelling a short distance on the blacktop road, the tractor suddenly entered the ditch on the west side of the road. For some reason, the tractor rotated 180 degrees during the incident and came to rest with it's front end pointing to the north. It also rolled three-fourths of a turn to it's left and came to rest on it's right side. The local resident who had briefly talked to the victim happened to look in his rear view mirror and saw the tractor disappear from the road. He stopped and drove to the scene where he found the victim lying next to the tractor. He placed a call to emergency personnel who arrived at the scene shortly after being notified and pronounced the victim dead. MN FACE investigators concluded that to reduce the likelihood of similar occurrences, the following guidelines should be followed: 1. all tractors should be equipped with a rollover protective structure and a seat belt

2. operators of tractors should maintain safe operating speeds at all times

and 3. machines and equipment should be adequately maintained and serviced to keep them in safe and proper operating condition.