Characterization of accidents involving tractors in Brazilian federal highways in the state of Minas Gerais

Abstract

Minas Gerais state has the largest road network within Brazil on which thousands of vehicles travel daily. Due the increasing in the number of tractors in Brazil, traffic incidents may have also increased. Therefore, the present work aimed to characterize accidents involving tractors in Minas Gerais federal highways through the following indicators, event type, crash causes, time of the day in which the episode occurred, drivers age, climatic conditions and the road the case happened by analyzing Traffic Accident Reports (TAR). The incidents' information was provided by the Federal Highway Police (FHP) through TAR questionnaires. The total data set in the present work is composed by 148 TAR forms in Minas Gerais State between January, 2008 and September, 2011. The results were submitted to the chisquare test at 95% probability. The events' profile indicates collision as the main crash type, lack of attention as the main cause and the time period that has the most occurrences was 09:00 to 11:59 time period. Additionally, the group aged 25 to 30 years old were involved in the highest number of episodes, in good climatic conditions and the Brazilian Federal road BR-381 had the most evidenced cases.

Use of Safety Components to Avoid Accidents With Agricultural Tractors in Public Roads

“…Although designed for the use in agricultural activities, tractors are also used on the move from one area to another, making use not only of roads inside the property, as well as of public roads (Correa et al, 2005;Machado, Ferreira, & Alonço, 2005;Reis & Machado, 2009;Gkritza et al, 2010;Santos, Monteiro, & Macedo, 2013;Macedo, 2014;Harland, Greenan, & Ramirez, 2014;Macedo et al, 2015b;Montemor, Veloso, & Areosa, 2015;Macedo et al, 2016).…”

Agricultural tractors conformity to the Brazilian traffic lighting and signaling legislation

“…In Brazil, there are, on average, two accidents with agricultural tractors every three days in federal highways. The main occurrence of accidents with agricultural tractors on public roads, is the collision (HARLAND et al, 2014;MACEDO et al, 2015aMACEDO et al, , 2015bMACEDO et al, , 2016. Tractors compliance with Brazilian traffic laws, as well as verification and maintenance in the lighting and signaling system can direct the accidents occurrence and injuries severity (REIS & MACHADO, 2009; SANTOS et al, 2013).With regard to Brazilian legislation for tractor traffic on public roadways, it is applicable National Traffic Council CONTRAN Resolution N°.…”