Farmer Dies When Tractor With Front-End Loader Overturns In Ditch and Pins Him

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  Michigan Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (Project) (MIFACE) ; Michigan State University. Department of Medicine. Occupational and Environmental Medicine
• Description:
  On July 28, 2003, a 77-year-old male farmer was driving a 1954 77 Oliver tractor equipped with a front-end loader with 12-inch bucket tines to a woodlot on his property. He was carrying a salvage flail mower chained to the loader. The tractor was not equipped with a roll-over protection structure (ROPS). He traveled east along a lane between his cornfields to the back of his property and made a right turn (south) around a 10-foot deep by 15-foot wide drainage ditch. There was a variable width path to the wood area on the east side of the ditch (See Figure 1). It appears that after he turned the corner and was on the path to the woodlot, he tried to avoid damaging a field of planted corn with the flail chopper. In trying to avoid the corn, he got too close to the drainage ditch and the tractor overturned to the side, landing on top of him. When he did not return home, his wife went looking for him and saw the overturned tractor. She called a family member who called 911. Emergency response arrived and the victim was declared dead at the scene. Recommendations: 1. Use equipment properly - a front-end loader bucket isn't designed to carry a flail chopper. 2. Equip older tractors with a roll-over protection structure (ROPS) and a seat belt ; the local county extension agent, local equipment dealer or equipment manufacturer should be contacted to see if a retro-fit ROPS/seat belt system is available. 3. Utilize open fields after crop harvest to access areas without established paths/roadways that have adequate width and distance from the edge of a ditch. 4. Establish crop-planting limits/boundaries to maintain farm machine access roads to other fields/areas. 5. When mowing or planting, leave a visual cue to identify the edge of drainage ditches or other land depressions.
• Content Notes:
  Publication Date provided by FACE program ; not printed on the report.
• Subjects:
  • Accident Prevention
  • Accidents
  • Accidents, Occupational
  • Agriculture
  • Farmers
  • Occupational Exposure
  • Occupational Health
  • Occupational Injuries
  • Safety
  • Safety Management
• Keywords:
  • Accident-analysis
  • Accident-potential
  • Accident-prevention
  • Accidents
  • Injuries
  • Injury-prevention
  • Safety-education
  • Safety-equipment
  • Safety-practices
  • Safety-measures
  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/NIOSHSFACE03MI103
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  Michigan ; OSHA Region 5
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  7 pdf pages
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20026828
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2008-101575
• 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 03MI103, 2004 Oct ; :1-7
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2005
• Performing Organization:
  Michigan State University
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  11 - Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting - (NAICS)
• Start Date:
  2002/09/01
• End Date:
  2006/08/31
• Resource Number:
  FACE-03MI103
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/169157/cdc_169157_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 528.08 KB]
• Collection(s):
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE) Program ; National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:8b73e9466d0769aa7feab17eff21c659a417848e99f85adf23a090b7550528b25ae86abfb75eb8c03148ded3d9ebc1afb07f5f7e7806daa5ad4ef588669728b2