# Presentation: 071722

## What’s the problem?Facts about Kentucky Farm TractorOverturn Deaths and Their Prevention

*A CDC /NIOSH Public Service Project for *
*Kentucky’s Farm  Communities*

*September 2000*

## Something good is happening

*What? *
*A public service project for your county*
*Why? *
*To save farmers and their loved ones from being killed or injured*
*To save them money*
*To provide peace of mind*

## A tough quiz!

*A tough quiz!*

**What happened to these farmers?**

## These 76 Kentucky farmers died in tractor overturns in 1994-99.

**All 108. Don't become a grim statistic. Get a ROPS and buckle up!**

**These 76 Kentucky farmers died in tractor overturns in 1994-99.**

**Another 32 farmers died when they fell off moving tractors.**

## Tractor overturns	76
Thrown from tractor and run over	25
Thrown from tractor but not run over	7
Highway motor vehicle & tractor collisions**	2
Total deaths	110
Potential lives saved by ROPS &  seat belts 	108

	*	KY Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE) data 1994-99.
	**	These two collisions involved large vehicles traveling at high speed. 	 	ROPS and seat belts might not have prevented these two deaths. 		

*Thrown from tractor and run over**	**25*
*Thrown from tractor but *_*not*_* run over**	**7*
*Highway motor vehicle & tractor collisions****	**2*
*Total deaths**	**110*
*Potential lives saved by ROPS** &  **seat belts **	****108***
- 	*	KY Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE) data 1994-99.
*	***	These two collisions involved large vehicles traveling at high speed. 	 	ROPS and seat belts might not have prevented these two deaths.

*ROPS & seat belts could have saved 108 lives**

## Project goals

*To increase the number of ROPS and seat belts on farm tractors*
*To encourage retirement of older tractors without ROPS or restrict them to jobs with less chance of overturns*
*To promote other safe tractor practices (e.g., no extra riders, use of slow moving vehicle [SMV] signs, etc.)*

## What’s a ROPS?

*ROPS - Rollover*
*Protective Structure*
*During an overturn *
*a ROPS and seat belt*
*hold the operator in*
*a “frame of safety.”*

## Demonstrating how a ROPS works

- ground

- frame of safety

- ROPS

- overturned
- model tractor

- seat belt

- steering wheel

- ROPS

- simulated seat belt

- simulated tractor driver (a raw egg)

## How a ROPS and seat belt work

- During an overturn the operator stays
- within the ROPS “frame of safety.”

- ROPS

- A fastened seat belt holds the
- operator on the tractor seat.

## Living dangerously (no ROPS, no seat belt)

- steering wheel

- tractor
- seat

- simulated
- tractor driver
- (a raw egg)

- scale model tractor

## An overturn without a ROPS

- overturned model
- tractor

- ground

- simulated tractor driver
- (crushed egg)

## Overturns without ROPS are deadly

- Without a ROPS and seat belt
- the operator is unprotected
- during an overturn.

- During a recent six-year period, 76 Kentucky
- farmers died when their tractors overturned. ROPS and seat belts could have saved all 76.

## Partially protected (ROPS but no seat belt)

## Why fasten the seat belt?

## Effectiveness of ROPS & seat belts

- In this case, the ROPS saved his life. A
- buckled seat belt would have saved his legs,
- huge medical bills, and a permanent disability.

- A ROPS alone greatly reduces the risk of being
- killed during an overturn compared to a tractor
- without a ROPS. Add a fastened seat belt and the operator is usually not injured in an overturn.

- ROPS

- Together ROPS and fastened seat belts are 98% effective in preventing injury and death during tractor overturns.

## Kentucky farmers at risk-1994

*In 1994, the KY fatality rate in Ag/Forestry/Fishing was ****3.1 times**** the national rate.*
*In KY, nearly all of these deaths were farming related.*

## Kentucky farmers at risk-1995

*In 1995, the KY fatality rate in Ag/Forestry/Fishing was ****3.5 times**** the national rate.*
*In KY, nearly all of these deaths were farming related.*

## Kentucky farmers at risk-1996

*In 1996, the KY fatality rate in Ag/Forestry/Fishing was ****2.8 times**** the national rate.*
*In KY, nearly all of these deaths were farming related.*

## Tractor-related farm deaths

- Average for US
- Farming States

- Kentucky 1994-98

- National Safety Council
- 1998 data for the US

- UK Kentucky Fatality Assessment
- and Control Evaluation data

## Kentucky’s farm injuries

*KY has more than 5,000 farm injuries*
*per year.*
*More than 1,100 involve farm tractors*

- 22%

- Total Annual Farm Injuries

## Age and ROPS status of KY tractors

**% ****Tractors**

**Year Tractor Was Manufactured**

*Based upon examination of 282 tractors from a random sample of 149 farms with principal operators age 55 years or older*

*Taken as a whole, the bars represent all of Kentucky’s working farm tractors. Each bar is the percent of tractors manufactured in a given five-year period.*
*The dark portions of the four bars represent the 29% of tractors equipped with ROPS. When these tractors overturn, the driver is seldom  injured.*
*The light gray portions of all the bars represent the 71% of tractors without ROPS. When these tractors overturn the driver is often seriously injured or killed. *

## Lifetime chance of an overturn

*1 in 9 Kentucky farmers age 55 or older have overturned a tractor and lived*
*1/3 of these survivors have had two or more overturns*
*many of these persons were injured*
*some received minor injuries*
*some received severe injuries*
*some were permanently disabled*

## Farms with children ages 11-17

*Farms less than 60 acres*
*Farms with only one tractor*
*Farms greater than 214 acres**	*

*3/4 have no ROPS- equipped tractors*
*3/4 have no ROPS on the tractor*
*3/5 have at least one tractor with a ROPS*

*Many children who live on small farms are at risk.*
*Children typically start driving tractors at age 10.*

## Children ages 11-17 years at risk on Kentucky farms

## ROPS-equipped tractors by farm size and number of tractors

*Farms less than 60 acres*
*Farms greater than 214 acres*
*Farms with only one tractor*
*Farms with four tractors*

*3/4 have no ROPS on the tractors*
*1/3 have no ROPS on the tractors*
*3/4 have no ROPS on the tractor*
*1/3 have no ROPS on the tractors*

## Use of ROPS on Kentucky farms

## Are ROPS cost effective?

*A study at UK found medical costs from a severe overturn injury can be $140,000 +*
*Tractor overturn fatalities and serious injuries often result in loss of the farm*
*A ROPS is a one-time cost < $1,000*

- Relative cost of a ROPS
- vs. a serious rollover injury

- dollars

## Your advice and help is needed

*In your interactions with farmers, what would convince them to get ROPS?*
*What are some key times, events, and ways to promote ROPS and seat belts?*
*Who should be involved and why?*
*What’s in it for them (and for you)?*
*In what ways can these materials be used in your community?*

## Local community organizations: How can they help?

*Radio and TV stations*
*Equipment dealers*
*Insurance services*
*Farm service & supply*
*Financial services*
*EMS (Fire & Rescue)*
*Farm organizations & commodity groups (Farm Bureau; Dairy, Cattle, Tobacco producers; etc.)*

*Health care providers*
*Farm women groups*
*Farm youth groups*
*Local employers (manufacturing plants, printing firms, utilities, cooperatives, etc.)*
*Schools and teachers*
*Rural development agencies*
*Others?*

## The ROPS project team

- Henry Cole, UK Project director, Professor, Educational Psychologist, UK Preventive Medicine & Environmental Health (859) 323-5202  or 323-6836
- Larry Piercy, Agricultural Extension Safety Specialist, UK College of Agriculture (859) 257-3000,  Extension 107
- Tim Struttmann, Injury Surveillance and Epidemiology Specialist, UK Kentucky Injury Prevention and Research Center (859) 257-4955
- Vickie Brandt, UK Barren County CPHF ROPS Project Coordinator
- Joan Muehlbauer, UK Fleming County CPHF ROPS Project Coordinator (retired)
- Susan Westneat, Data Analyst, UK Preventive Medicine & Environmental Health
- Steve Browning, Epidemiologist, UK Preventive Medicine & Environmental Health
- Susan Morgan, Mass Communication Researcher,UK College of Communications
- Joan Mazur, Instructional Systems Design and Technology, UK College of Education
- Kari Button, Farmer, Glasgow , Kentucky
- Carol Lehtola, Tractor Safety Expert, University of Florida
- Ted Scharf, Research Psychologist, NIOSH, Cincinnati, OH
- Janet Ehlers, NIOSH Project Officer, Cincinnati, OH
- Teri Palermo, NIOSH Project Officer, Morgantown, WV
- Jennifer Lindberg, Ranmalee Perera, Stacy Phillips, & Bor Chyi Lin, 	           Graduate Student Research Assistants, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY
- Lynda Charles, Kim Hall, Dorothy Daley, Kristie Smith Carol Donnelly, Paul Martin      Support Staff, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY
- Many additional local and regional community partners

***The project staff conducted injury surveillance and ***
***program development.***
***The community partners helped to develop and***
***and deliver the community***
***education program.***

*The data provided in this presentation were collected by University of Kentucky researchers.*