National Tractor Safety Initiative
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has awarded funding to a consortium of university bases agricultural safety and health research centers across the U.S. including HICAHS. The funding under a two-year NIOSH grant will help the centers launch a national public health campaign for preventing deaths and serious injuries for tractor overturns and other tractor related incidents.
Fatalities from agricultural tractors are by far the leading cause of death and serious injury in agriculture in the United States. This is an unacceptable burden since technical solutions do exist. The goal of this 24-month project is to complete and synthesize the knowledge base and build the capacity to mount a national public health campaign to reduce fatalities and injuries related to agricultural tractors in the U.S. This project builds on decades of work by the investigators and involves the collaboration of all nine of the regional NIOSH Agricultural Centers, the National Agricultural Children's Center, and collaborators at NIOSH. The specific aims and organization of this project were developed with input from a wide array of stakeholders at national meetings. The project activities of this collaborative effort are interdependent and address the key components necessary for the implementation of a National Agricultural Tractor Safety Campaign.
The project components are divided into evidence building aspects and stakeholder building aspects. Project components include:
1. Lead Center. PI-Dr .Stephen J. Reynolds,CIH (HICAHS), CSU
2. Costs of Tractor Operator Injuries from Overturns and Highway Collisions. PI-Dr. Hank Cole,Ed.D., KY
3. Impact of Changes in ROPS Standards, Regulations and Technology on Future Tractor ROPS Availability.PI-Dr. Juhua Liu (HICAHS), CSU
4. Documentation of Acceptability and Procedures for Financial Incentives for Rollover-Protective Structures (ROPS) Retrofitting.PI-Dr. Mark A. Purschwitz,
5. Designing Community-based Social Marketing Programs for Tractor Safety. PI-Dr. Chike Anyaegbunam, KY
6. Communications and Partners.PI-Dr.Rich Fenske, WA
A Leadership Council including representatives from all of the collaborating NIOSH Ag Centers will serve to facilitate the success of this effort through communication, coordination, and synthesis on a regular basis. At the conclusion of this project we will be poised to implement a National Tractor Safety Public Health Campaign. We will have identified barriers, strategies for success and resources needed for the National Tractor Safety Initiative. A well-planned and adequately funded national campaign using ppropriate media and promotional means will drive: the initiative earlier efforts have not had such a component. This effort involves an unprecedented collaboration among all of the NIOSH Ag Centers and NIOSH, and is truly an integrated national campaign.