Human Factors in Agricultural Tractor Safety

Abstract

Agriculture is the third most hazardous industry, following mining and construction. Some reasons for this relate to the nature of agricultural machines and the conditions under which they are operated. Only 5% of all U.S. workers were engaged in agriculture in 1973, but these accounted for 17% of all work related injuries. Farm machinery was involved in the greatest number of these accidents. The economic cost of farm accidents is rising rapidly. Human factors engineering can be applied in the analysis of man/machine/environment/task relationships in agriculture. However, most conditions or assumptions applicable to industrial safety engineering do not apply in agricultural operations where variability, self-reliance, and self-management are the rule. This paper presents a survey of the current state of the art in applying human factors to agricultural tractors and explores some current research frontiers as well as some possibilities for future research.