‘A very serious issue’: tractor rollover, runover tragedies preventable with proper precautions

WELLINGTON COUNTY – Cutting corners can save time, says Walter Grose, but at what cost?

“That’s the only thing we can’t get more of, is time.”

Grose is secretary of the Wellington County Farm and Home Association — and you may have seen him dressed up as his alter-ego at local farm shows, Safety Sam.

“That’s the problem with farm safety: time is running out, you try to cut a corner or do somehting quick, and you’re injured and in the hospital.”

On Grose’s mind leading up to Agriculture Safety Week are deadly tractor rollovers and runovers.

Rollovers were the leading cause of farm machinery-related deaths across the country from 2011-20, according to Canadian Agricultural Injury Reporting data.

There were 624 agriculture-related fatalities in that time — 66 per cent were caused by machinery.

Last year, a 79-year-old man was killed after his tractor rolled on a trail near Morrisburg. Police discovered the rolled tractor with the man pinned underneath. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Speaking generally, Grose said farmers often don’t use available seatbelts.

If a tractor leaves the road or tips and rolls on an enbankment, there can be life-altering implications.

“When you are driving a tractor, you just jump on in and you say, ‘well I’m just going down the block,’” Grose said, adding, “it takes two seconds to put on a seatbelt.”

Tractors sold in the past 25 years are equipped with “rollover protective structures” — essentially a rollover bar — required by law.

The bar supports the weight of the tractor and prevents the operator from being sandwhiched between the machine and the ground if the tractor tips or rolls.

Older tractors (pre-1992) without rollover bars can be retrofitted.

Grose said farmers need to be in the habit of raising the bars after lowering to operate in a low-clearance space.

“Get that roll over protection system ... standing up, get the pin in and make it tall,” he said.

‘You don’t think it’s going to happen’

Runovers are avoidable tragedies, Grose said, referencing several deaths of children on Wellington County farms since 2010.

Grose suggested communcating about who is doing what on the farm at the start of a day goes a long way.

“You say, ‘Kids, you can play out in the grass here, but you can’t go walking back to the bush because dad’s back there with the tractor,’” Grose said.

If children are trusted to drive machinery Grose suggested children be taught not to dismount until making eye contact with a tractor operator.

“You can’t see behind because of those big tractor tires,” Grose said.

Attendees at the Drayton Farm Show in April can expect to see the farm and home association’s display with a tricycle behind a tractor tire illustrating the problem.

“You don’t plan on it, you don’t think it’s going to happen,” Grose said of runovers.

“It’s a serious issue, a very serious issue.”