Example In Swedish Tractor Deaths

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31724, 6 July 1968, Page 12

Example In Swedish Tractor Deaths

The death rate among New Zealand tractor drivers was 36 for every 100,000 tractors, but in Sweden, where the fitting of safety cabs was now compulsory, it was only 14, and not all tractors there had yet been fitted, an officer of the National Safety Association, Mr J. C. Warren, said yesterday.

Mr Warren, who was addressing the Christchurch conference of the agricultural section of the General Contractors’ Federation, said he strongly favoured safety frames on tractors. They did not stop tractors from rolling over, but they did save lives. He said he knew of one tractor which had rolled over

four times, and broken in two, but the driver stayed with the cab and escaped injury. New Zealand had 31 tractor deaths last year, and six of them were agricultural contractors. In addition, 205 tractor drivers were admitted to hospital after accidents. Mr Warren said that in a Swedish survey of tractor accidents, only one man out of 30 had been killed in accidents involving tractors with cabs. He had been thrown out.

Fifty-seven per cent of accidents in New Zealand occurred on surfaces ranging from flat to nine degrees, 20 per cent occurred on surfaces of 10 to 20 degrees, another 20 per cent on surfaces of 20 to 30 degrees, and 7 per cent on surfaces of 30 degrees or more.

Fifteen per cent of tractors were crawlers, and they accounted for 19 per cent of fatal accidents.

Ninety per cent of the accidents occurred through loss of traction, and Mr Warren recommended the use of equaliser brakes. He described them as excellent. Mr Warren said he was not convinced about the use of safety belts on tractors. “We say if you stay with the cab you should be saved.” he said The man he referred to earlier, whose tractor rolled four times, had a safety belt, but was not wearing it. Mr Warren gave a warning against home-made safetyframes. Earlier this year, a driver had been crushed in his home-made eab, when his tractor overturned while he was pushing barbary clippings into a river.