Assessing Farm Tractor Incidents and Awareness Levels of Operators for Tractor Safety Issues in the Hatay Province of Turkey

Abstract

Studies and statistical data on safety issues related to farm tractors and machinery are very limited in developing countries, including Turkey. This study was carried out to investigate tractor-related incidents in the Hatay province, located in the midsouth of Turkey. A questionnaire was conducted with 107 tractor operators using face-toface interviews. Data were evaluated according to the incident type, machinery involved, and mechanism of injury or fatality. A total of 101 incidents were reported by 77 of the 107 respondents. Most of the incidents were due to tractor rollovers (65.4%), 14.8% of the incidents were due to entanglement of body parts in moving machinery, and 12.9% involved crashing into other vehicles or obstacles. The leading cause of the incidents was personal mistakes (60.4%). Fatalities resulted from 25.7% of the incidents, while 45.5% of the incidents caused non-fatal injuries. Only 5.6% of the tractors had a ROPSenclosed cab. The percentage of ROPS-equipped tractors was 19.6%, while 41.3% of the tractors had a shade cover and 33.6% had no protective structure. Only one of the respondents used a seatbelt, although 44.9% of them stated that seatbelts should be used. It was also found that only 13.5% of the operators had training in work safety, while 95.1% stated that incidents might be reduced if people were trained. Development of appropriate policies and training programs are needed for safer operation of agricultural machinery to reduce injuries and fatalities due to farm accidents.

Safety Vision of Agricultural Tractors: An Engineering Perspective Based on Recent Studies (2009–2019)

“…In line with this aspect, other studies addressed the proper comprehension of safety signs and pictorials [102][103][104][105], highlighting the importance given to human factors (research stream S.6). In addition, documents reporting efforts made to augment the safety culture/attitudes of farmers, promoting the use of ROPS and seatbelts, were consistent with such an address [37,127,128,130,136]. These research trends confirm that "safety is, above all, behavioral and individual" [53], promoting a human-centered approach in the field of tractor safety.…”

“…The number of research works dealing with the behavior of the operators is also noteworthy. In particular, most studies included in this research stream investigated the user attitude towards safety practices and risk-taking behavior [18,[127][128][129], including their perception of safety issues [37]. Jenkins et al [130] surveyed motivations and barriers to the safe use of tractors among farmers.…”

Health and safety sign knowledge levels of tractor operators in agricultural production

“…This lack of understanding could pose an accident risk to themselves and others. The number of accidents might be reduced by training of operators (Görücü Keskin et al, 2012). Therefore, improving operator knowledge through targeted training and education is imperative for ensuring safety, reducing accidents, and enhancing overall agricultural efficiency.…”

Retrofitting Agricultural Self-Propelled Machines with Roll-Over and Tip-Over Protective Structures

“…However, there are still difficulties affecting the implementation of safety measures among farmers at a practical level, as reported by numerous studies, which indicated agriculture as a very hazardous sector [1][2][3]. This aspect is confirmed by accident statistics that show a high rate of fatal and non-fatal accidents of farmers worldwide [4][5][6][7][8].…”

“…The main reasons for such a situation can be ascribed to the following aspects: the obsolescence of a large amount of machinery, which need to be adapted to the latest safety requirements; the lack of knowledge of safety rules when using work equipment, most of which requires specific training and/or a qualification; and the lack of adequate information on the safety procedures aimed at maintaining or updating agricultural machinery and equipment, as pointed out by numerous studies [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18].…”