Roll-over Protective Structure Use and the Cost of Retrofitting Tractors in the United States, 1993

Abstract

Agricultural tractors are the leading cause of occupational death in the agriculturalproduction industry in the United States, with tractor overturns being the single mostcommon event causing these deaths. Rollover Protective Structures (ROPS) are themost effective intervention available at this time to prevent these deaths, but ROPS arenot used universally by U.S. farmers. An analysis of tractor information from 12,913randomly sampled farms indicated that, in 1993, over 4.8 million tractors were in useon U.S. farms, of which 2.98 million lacked ROPS. Farm tractors over 20 years of agewere much less likely to have ROPS. The material cost of retrofitting ROPS on thetractors examined in the study was estimated at $937 per tractor, with a cost of$825,000 per life saved. An additional 1.68 million tractors needing ROPS were notcovered in this cost analysis. Suggestions on possible programs to increase ROPS useon farm tractors are discussed.