More Than Half Tractor Deaths Could Have Been Avoided By Cabs

Taupo Times, Volume XIV, Issue 50, 29 June 1965, Page 15

More Than Half Tractor Deaths Could Have Been Avoided By Cabs

Investigation of the 34 tractor fatalities of 1964 reveals no new ways of getting killed on a farm tractor; all are merely repetitions of previous happenings. It is distressing that so little has been learnt from these earlier fatilities, says Mr C. J. Crosbie, Farm Advisory Officer (Machinery), Department of Agriculture, who has been keeping detailed records of tractor accidents for 15 years.

Sixty-eight per cent of lives lost in roll-overs or backward somersaults, or 50 per cent of all tractor fatalities last year, could have been saved by the widespread use of safety cabs and frames. The fact that a large percentage of lives could have been saved must greatly concern all associated with farm tractors, he says. • A collapsing bridge cost three lives in one rollover; this has happened on at least three previous occasions. • The loss of contro] on a steep slope wet after rain that initiated a roll-over that cost two lives has happened many times. • The lack of guards on two power take-off shafts that. cost two lives last year is a danger well-known t.o all operators. It must now be admitted, says Mr Crosbie, that well-known rules of safe tractor operation are being flaunted or ignored, though some gituations leading to fatal happenings would have been hard to foresee and among last year's victims were (sonie careful, experienced operators. The fact remains that widespread use of tractor safety frames or safety: cabs would have preventedj a large percentage of thei loss of life by protectingi the dperator against him-j self. Twenty-two cases of j tractors rolling over on somersaulting backward in ' 1964 involved 25 lives. Thirty-four tractor fatali- 1 ties in 1964 involved four crawler and 27 wheeled tractors. There were two multiple family tractor deaths, three on one tractor and two on another, Less than two months apart. a father and his son were killed in two tractor accidents on separate • farms. In addition there were 12 non-farming tractor fatalities and two - farmers died of natural causes (heart1

failure) on tractors. Of a further 35 „ tractor mishaps of which details are known, many are rere arkable beeause of the narrow gap between a serious and fatal result; operators were often extremely lucky to survive.