AgriSuccess
Safety on the farm - Rollover protective structures can save your life.
Peter van Dongen
Tractor rollovers are still the leading cause of fatal injuries for Canadian farmers. Studies show that using a rollover protective structure (ROPS) and a seatbelt will almost always prevent fatal injury. In fact, where the use of ROPS is compulsory, rollover fatalities have been virtually eliminated.
Sweden began requiring ROPS on all new tractors in 1959, and since 1981 has required a safety cab on all tractors. From 1960 to 1990, farm fatalities per 100,000 tractors dropped from 17 to just 0.3.
Here in Canada, most provinces required new tractors to be equipped with ROPS beginning in the mid-’80s. However, many older tractors don’t have them. Price is often a deterrent, as installing a ROPS on an older model tractor sometimes costs more than the tractor is worth.
The Farm and Ranch Safety and Health Association (FARSHA) recently conducted a research project to install ROPS on 50 tractors throughout B.C. Working in partnership with several other organizations, including the Prairie Agricultural Machinery Institute (PAMI), FARSHA tested ROPS from original equipment manufacturer (OEM) suppliers, after-market suppliers, and several custom-built options to see which models could be installed most effectively and at a reasonable cost.
Vancouver Island dairy farmer Chris Groenendijk installed a ROPS on a tractor from the early ’70s. “It’s one of those things you know you should have, but you don’t really get around to it,” he says. “It worked out really well.”
Studies show that using a ROPS and seatbelt will almost always prevent fatal injury.
The average cost of a commercially available ROPS was $1,570 – but prices ranged from $425 to more than $3,200. “A lot of producers would not go to the effort for that price,” says Nathan Gregg, project leader at PAMI. On average, freight accounted for 16 per cent of the total cost.
ROPS from OEM suppliers typically had the best fit, and were also the cheapest at an average cost of $920, but John Deere and Kubota were the only major tractor brands to offer OEM ROPS for older tractors. Some “universal fit” after-market options were relatively cheap and quickly available. However, on-demand built ROPS often took significantly longer – sometimes months – for delivery.
Custom-built ROPS showed promise, with prices ranging from $600 to $1,000. Freight costs were also markedly lower because the ROPS could be built locally. PAMI and FARSHA are now exploring the possibility of supplying engineered drawings that producers can take to a local fabricator.
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