Transcript Operator Injury Outcomes for Overturns of ROPS and non-ROPS Tractors

Operator Injury Outcomes for Overturns of ROPS and non-ROPS Tractors
Henry P. Cole, Susan C. Westneat, Melvin L. Myers
Southeast Center for Agricultural Health and Injury Prevention, University of Kentucky College of Public Health, Lexington, KY 40504
Figure 1: Operator injuries from overturns of non-ROPS
tractors (n = 443)
Background
5.4%
Roll over protective structures (ROPS) mounted on tractors prevent operators
from being crushed during overturns. A buckled seatbelt keeps the operator
within the ROPS safety zone. Approximately 60% of Kentucky farm tractors
lack ROPS. More than 80% of farmers who operate ROPS-equipped tractors
fail to wear seatbelts.
2.5%
12.0%
5.4%
4.3%
Goals
Calculate the frequency of six categories of operator injury outcomes for
overturns of ROPS and non-ROPS tractors: no or minor injury, injured but no
medical treatment, outpatient treatment, hospital admission, permanent
disability, and death. These were calculated for operators
(1) who overturned tractors
● without ROPS
● equipped with ROPS
Died
Permanently disabled
Admitted to hospital
Outpatient treatment
Injured, no treatment
No or minor injury
70.4%
Figure 5: Operator fatally injured during a lateral overturn
of a non-ROPS tractor
Figure 2: Operator injuries from overturns of ROPS
tractors (n = 92)
1.1%
4.3%
13.0%
(2) of ROPS-equipped tractors who were
● not wearing a seatbelt
● wearing a seatbelt
3.3%
Died
Admitted to hospital
Outpatient treatment
Injured no treatment
Not injured
Method
A telephone survey of 6,063 (8%) of Kentucky principal farm operators
was conducted. Operations were randomly sampled from the USDA 2002
master farm list. The survey collected detailed information about each
farm’s most recent tractor overturn event and the operator’s injuries. The
response rate was 78%.
Figure 6: Belted operator uninjured in a lateral overturn of a ROPS tractor
78.3%
Figure 3: Injuries to unbelted operators when ROPS
tractors overturned (n = 42)
2.4%
4.8%
Results
23.8%
Goal 1 – Injury outcomes were known for 443 farmers who overturned nonROPS tractors and for 92 farmers who overturned ROPS-equipped tractors.
See Figures 1 and 2.
Goal 2 - Injury outcomes were known for 42 farmers who overturned ROPSequipped tractors while not wearing a seatbelt and for 19 farmers who were
wearing a seatbelt during a ROPS tractor overturn. See Figures 3 and 4.
Operators’ full days of farm work lost as a result of tractor overturn injuries
were known for 60 non-ROPS tractors and 13 ROPS-equipped tractors. See
Table 1. Farm work lost from non-ROPS tractor overturn injuries averaged
about 14 weeks compared to about 3 weeks for ROPS tractor overturns.
Died
Admitted to hospital
Outpatient treatment
No or minor injury
69.0%
Significance
Prior estimates of operator injury outcomes that result from overturns of nonROPS and ROPS-equipped tractors have two weaknesses. First, they focus
primarily on fatal outcomes and ignore non-fatal injuries. Second, they are
based on death certificate data, newspaper reports, Bureau of Labor Statistics
data, OSHA reports, and hospital emergency department records -- none of
which provides random, population-based samples of tractor overturn events
and their injury outcomes. This study is the first to provide population-based
estimates of the frequency of the six classes of injury outcomes for operators
who overturn non-ROPS and ROPS-equipped tractors.1
Acknowledgements
Figure 4: Injuries to belted operators when ROPS
tractors overturned (n = 19)
5.3%
The work reported was supported by CDC/NIOSH grant 1R25-04-0008542-01,
sub-contract G-4607-7. Human subjects approval was granted by the University
of Kentucky Institutional Review Board under IRB protocol # 05-0439-P2G.
Poster presented at the Annual Meeting of the National Institute for Farm
Safety; Lancaster, PA; 2008 Jun 22-25.
1
Values in Figures 1-4 are uncorrected for farms that went out of business prior to 2002 because of
tractor overturn injuries or fatalities and were therefore not included in the sampling frame.
Table 1: Days of farm work lost as a result of non-fatal injuries from nonROPS and ROPS tractor overturns
ROPS Status
No ROPS
With ROPS
n
60
13
Mean
97.8
21.9
SD
122.6
28.5
Median
36
7
Range Mode
364
365 (8)
92
1 (3)
Outpatient treatment
No or minor injury
94.7%
94.7%