Net monetary benefit of cost-effective rollover protective structures (CROPS): an estimate of the potential benefits...

This study builds on an earlier study to examine the net monetary benefit of installing cost-effective rollover protective structures (CROPS) instead of utilizing existing ROPS retrofits for all estimated non-ROPS tractors in the year 2004. With the conservative estimates used in the analyses, results indicate that compared to the baseline option (no protective structure), the Install-ROPS option results in a loss of $310 million to society, while the Install-CROPS option results in a net monetary benefit of $276 million over a 20-year period. A comprehensive sensitivity analysis indicated that, for the extreme values (estimates) used, the estimated net monetary benefit is most sensitive to the probability of tractor overturn. Break-even analysis indicated that the unit cost of intervention for the Install-CROPS option can increase by about 58% and still be able to pay for itself. Even when the minimal unit cost of intervention for ROPS is used, the payback period is reduced substantially for the Install-CROPS option, by almost half the payback period. Finally, compared to existing ROPS retrofits, the net monetary benefit is $586 million, representing an estimate of the potential benefits of the CROPS research.