CEMA has reported that four out of five accidents that happen on public roads with farm machines can be attributed to just five major factors. This is the result of an analysis of accident data from Switzerland from the past six years (2011-2016).
The analysis provides new evidence on why such accidents occur and gives helpful indications on which measures should be pursued with priority to prevent and reduce them. This is particularly important since solid, comparable data for on-road accidents involving farm machines is still largely missing in Europe.
In order of importance, the five major causes of on-road accidents with farm machines are: rollover of the machine (24% of analyzed on-road accidents with farm machines), behaviour of other road users (20%), operator visibility (15%), machine maintenance (13%), and driver behaviour (11%).
To address these causes in an effective and efficient way, the following priority actions should be pursued with priority in the future:
• retro-fitting older farm machines with roll-over protection structures and with appropriate
lighting and signalling panels;
• boost driver training to ensure greater awareness & alertness of drivers as well as public
awareness campaigns on characteristics and traffic behaviour of farm vehicles;
• voluntary installation of mirrors or cameras to improve visibility (range of vision);
• improving maintenance of older farm machines.
As all modern farm machines already have roll-over protection structures and seatbelts installed,‘old’ vehicles appear to be responsible for the high share (24%) of roll-over-related accidents many of which are fatal (they represent 39% of all fatal on-road accidents with farm machinery).
CEMA advise that one major focus for accident prevention should therefore be to provide incentives to retro-fit older machines with such features. This seems particularly urgent as roll overs are also by far the highest factor (51%) of accidents happening with machines on the farm or in the field.
