ScienceDaily (Nov. 18, 2008) — Population growth and significant increases in development across the country are leading to changes in traffic and driving behavior in many areas where motorists share the road with farmers moving their equipment – changes that worry some members of the agriculture community.

Now researchers from North Carolina State University have found a number of risk factors associated with traffic accidents involving farm vehicles, which could point the way toward changes that will better protect farmers and motorists.

Crashes involving farm vehicles on public roads are infrequent (they make up less than 1 percent of accidents in North Carolina), but they are a significant concern for farmers. In fact, a crash on a public road involving farm equipment is five times more likely to result in a fatality than other types of motor vehicle accidents. In an attempt to better understand what circumstances might contribute to farm vehicle crashes, NC State researchers looked at data from North Carolina farms to identify common risk factors.

Study co-author Dr. Michael D. Schulman, William Neal Reynolds Professor of Sociology at NC State, explains that the study identified five factors associated with farms that had increased odds of being in a farm vehicle crash on a public road. For example, Schulman says, size matters in farm vehicle crashes – a farm's odds of being involved in an accident on public roads increases as the size of the transported farm equipment increases.

Other factors included a farm's using young farm vehicle drivers; using non-family hired help as drivers; a history of farm injuries; and use of non-English speaking farm vehicle drivers. However, Schulman stresses that – while the study found that farms using hired help and non-English speaking workers were more likely to have crashes – limitations in the available data prevented the researchers from determining whether the non-English speaking workers or hired help were themselves involved in farm vehicle crashes.

Schulman says the study finds that "a multifaceted approach that goes beyond the farmer" is needed to improve farm vehicle safety on public roads. The study suggests that future research should ascertain whether farm vehicle driver licensing, training, testing and monitoring would reduce the risk of farm vehicle crashes. And, Schulman notes, farmers themselves have suggested the creation of slow-moving vehicle lanes and better speed-limit enforcement.

Journal reference:

1. Costello et al. Risk factors for a farm vehicle public road crash. Accident Analysis & Prevention, Online Sept. 24, 2008; DOI: 10.1016/j.aap.2008.08.029

Related Stories

Stop-And-Go Traffic: An Accident? Construction Work? No, Just Too Much Traffic (Mar. 5, 2008) — A new study from a Japanese research group explains why we're occasionally caught in traffic jams for no visible reason. The real origin of traffic jams often has nothing to do with obvious ...  > read more

Senior Drivers Less Likely Than Youngest Drivers To Cause Accidents, Study Finds (July 23, 2007) — Drivers 65 and older are just one-third as likely as drivers 15 to 24 to cause auto accidents, and not much more likely than drivers 25 to 64 to cause accidents, according to a new ...  > read more

Professor Believes Safer Race Cars Result In More Accidents (May 14, 2007) — A West Virginia University professor who examined 21 years of NASCAR accident reports and made a comparison to introductions of safety requirements, has concluded that more safety regulations in the ...  > read more

Road Traffic Deaths In China Have Soared Almost 100 Percent In 20 Years (June 5, 2008) — The number of road traffic deaths in China has soared almost 100 percent in two decades, reveals a study published in the journal Injury ...  > read more

Automated Tailgating Cuts Pollution (July 15, 2007) — An automated way of allowing cars to drive much closer to each other in heavy moving traffic, so-called platooning, could cut congestion, save fuel and cut greenhouse gas emissions, according to new ...  > read more

Search ScienceDaily

Driver Distraction