Agricultural tractors conformity to the Brazilian traffic lighting and signaling legislation

Abstract

Increasing the agricultural machinery visibility makes public roadways traffic safer by reducing the number of accidents and their severity. The study aimed to verify the compliance of new agricultural tractors with Brazilian law, given by, CONTRAN Resolution N° 454, NR12 and NR31, regarding the presence of lighting and signaling elements for traffic. The study was carried out in agricultural machinery dealers of seven brands, corresponding to 50 different models of new wheeled agricultural tractors. The items that was not present in total tractors sample are the rear position lamp, the reverse light and the rear retro-reflector. In addition, only one of the seven brands studied showed complete compliance with evaluated elements. Although, the Brazilian legislation specify the presence of lighting and signaling items for agricultural tractors traffic, there is not fully comply on tractors models analyzed and the Brazilian law are not homogeneously met by the agricultural tractor manufacturers in the verified sample, what can be leading to tractors traffic accident occurrences.