Being hit by a tractor or caught in a tractor rollover comprise by far the largest percentage of accidents on Canadian farms, and yet many farmers still fail to take adequate precautions.
As part of our Tractor Safety issue, we wanted to know how our readers stack up in maintaining a safe environment on the farm, and specifically involving their tractor. In general, Orchard and Vine readers seem pretty safety conscious, but there is obviously room for improvement. The results of our readers' poll, shown in this collection of pie charts and graphs, shows many farmers in our reader group check on safety issues every single day.
Considering eight per cent of our readers have been in a tractor accident, that's something farmers might want to pay attention too.
Where do you fall within these poll results?
Have you read the manual?
Are there safety features that you would like to see added to your tractor?
Most respondents said no. They were satisfied with the safety features on their tractors.
- PTO emergency stop on the rear end, near the Three Point Hitch.
- Emergency PTO shutoff at rear of tractor close to PTO shaft connection.
- Tipping alert.
- Back up beepers better cab mounted mirrors for rear views.
- Warning beacons.
- Clear limitation to the tractor, and maybe a tilt sensor or alarm to prevent roll over.
- Fire extinguisher.
- Safety Belts.
- Cupholder.
- Lower center of gravity.
Tractor Survey
Overall what are your biggest tractor safety concerns?
EQUIPMENT
- Particulates in diesel exhaust.
- Harvest operation including loading and unloading bins.
- Safety features are not standardized between tractor manufacturer.
- PTO shields are too tight.
- To connect equipment to tractor. There are a lot of pinch points and you have to get in between equipment and tractor to connect PTO.
Have you had a tractor accident?
STABILITY, CONDITIONS & TERRAIN
- Driving steep side hills, mud, snow and ice.
- Working on uneven ground.
- Stability is very important in all cases because of the terrain we work on.
- Rollovers, runaways on hills, tipping with heavy loads.
- Tip overs with heavy loads.
- Stability on rough terrain.
- Tractor lateral stability in grape rows storage.
What is your age range?
HUMAN ERROR
- Proper training and having operators obey them.
- The lack of understanding from some employees about certain jobs. If the person operating the tractor does not understand what the job requires then accidents happen. Today anyone can drive a tractor it comes down to personnel training.
- Being hit by others when operating on the road.
- Dismounting tractor in a hurry.
- Stupid people. Careless operators.
- Don't work alone.
- I get older, things get heavier.
- DEATH • (yep, that would concern us too!
