Analysis of tractor-related deaths in North Carolina from 1979 to 1988

This descriptive study examined 342 fatalities involving tractors and attachments that occurred during a 10-year period in North Carolina from 1979 to 1988. Reports of the North Carolina Office of the Chief Medical Examiner and medical examiner's certificates of death were reviewed using the public health model of causation. Data were collected on characteristics of thefatally injured (host), including age, occupation, blood alcohol concentration and length of survival; characteristics of the injury event (environment), including type of accident, weather conditions and terrain; and characteristics of the agent, including both the tractor and attachments, if any, in place at the time of injury. Ninety-eight percent of the victims were male. Victims ages 65 and older accounted for 38 percent of fatal injuries, and 11 percent were 18 years of age or younger. Only slightly more than one-half of the victims (54 percent) were full- or part-time farmers. Forty-four percent of the deaths were to nonfarmers who were not in the act of farming. Nineteen percent of tested victims had a detectable blood alcohol level. Almost three-fourths of the victims died in the first hour after injury and 87 percent within the first 24 hours. In the majority of accidents, the tractor operator was a victim of a rollover or runover. This study provided detailed characterization of the fatally injured and, to the extent possible, the tractor involved and the injury event itself. However, additional methods of data collection are needed to provide further characterization of the injury event and the injury agent to design and support prevention programs for tractor users.