Farmer Dies After Tractor He was Driving Rolled Over on Him [95MN07101]

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  Minnesota Fatality Assessment & Control Evaluation Program (MN FACE) ; Minnesota. Department of Health
• Description:
  The victim was alone at the time that this incident occurred. This report is based on a MN FACE site investigation and a review of a sheriff's department report and photographs of the incident. A 65-year-old farmer (victim) died of injuries sustained when the tractor he was driving overturned. During the late afternoon hours, on the day of the incident, he used a farm tractor equipped with a front-end loader and a large round bale spear to haul large round hay bales from a field to his farmyard. The tractor was not equipped with a general purpose enclosed cab or a rollover protective structure. After he had hauled two bales from the field and as darkness fell, he drove from the farmyard to get a third bale of hay. He arrived at the field and used the loader and bale spear to pick up another large round bale. Since it was no longer daylight, family members believed that he raised the loader to a height where the bottom of the bale was approximately five feet above the ground. This had been done on other occasions so the bale did not interfere with the illumination provided by the tractor lights. While he drove from the field toward the farmyard, the left rear tractor wheel gradually left the driveway surface and entered the ditch on the west side of the driveway. The tractor overturned 180 degrees to the left side and came to rest upside down in a field along the west side of the driveway. The victim was found by his son approximately 30 minutes after he had left the farmyard for the bale of hay. The victim's son immediately returned to the farm house and called emergency medical personnel. They arrived at the scene shortly after being notified and removed the victim from under the tractor. The victim was transferred to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival by the county coroner. 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 ; and 2. while in motion, tractors with loaders should be operated with the loader in the lowest possible position.
• Subjects:
  • Accident Prevention
  • Accidents
  • Accidents, Occupational
  • Agriculture
  • Farmers
  • Occupational Health
  • Personal Protective Equipment
  • Safety
  • Safety Management
  • Workplace
• Keywords:
  • OSHA Region 5
  • Accident-analysis
  • Accident-prevention
  • Accidents
  • Injuries
  • Injury-prevention
  • Traumatic-injuries
  • Work-operations
  • Work-analysis
  • Work-areas
  More +
• 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/NIOSHSFACE95MN071
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  Minnesota ; OSHA Region 5
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-3
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20027524
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2014-105071
• 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 95MN071, 1996 Mar ; :1-3
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1996
• Performing Organization:
  Minnesota Department of Health
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  11 - Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting - (NAICS)
• Start Date:
  1991/09/30
• End Date:
  2006/08/31
• Resource Number:
  FACE-95MN071
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/167151/cdc_167151_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 62.23 KB]
• Collection(s):
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE) Program ; National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:dfde458ac2e5cd6b09189a5b44535255aba13dc3c7d59e768fd28b4f3ac9455f7524768ffebbce8ae079f9cfd2de4bda8ca7279e8f4b2d3008032b217e363f3a