Tractors, the Number 1 Cause of Fatalities on the Farm

Tractor fatality rates on the farm

Overturns have the highest fatality rate for unintentional tractor injures occurring on the farm, according to reports from 29 states covering more than 66 percent of the tractors in U.S. In 1993, overturns accounted for 55 percent of all on-the-farm tractor fatalities reported, with a an annual rate of 4.1 deaths per 100,000 tractors.

For all tractor fatalities combined, projecting the overall rate of 7.5 deaths per 100,000 tractors in this sample to the nation's approximately 4.62 million tractors yields an estimated 351 tractor-related deaths on farms nationwide in 1993.

Tractor fatalities on the farm by type of accident, 1980 - 1993
Year	Percent of deaths
	Overturns	Runovers	Power Takeoffs	Other
1980	48	29	8	15
1981	58	20	7	15
1982	49	20	4	27
1983	58	22	1	19
1984	52	29	2	17
1985	51	26	7	16
1986	44	23	6	27
1987	52	24	3	21
1988	44	29	7	20
1989	55	15	2	28
1990	52	33	3	12
1991	47	30	4	19
1992	53	25	3	19
1993	55	23	4	18
Source: Deaths based on vital statistics and individual case reports by state agricultural safety specialists; tractors based on U.S. Census of Agriculture, 1987, estimated for 1990 by Implement and Tractor. Abstracted from the National Safety Council's 1994 edition of Accident Facts.