Rollbars For Safer Tractors

A Wisconsin-based organization is trying to save lives by encouraging farmers to make their tractors safer.

Seven people have died from tractor rollovers in Wisconsin this year.It is the number one cause of death on farms.The National Farm Medicine Center in Marshfield is creating a program that would encourage farmers to use roll bars or roll cages by paying part of the cost.Research Scientist Barbara Malenga says the devices save lives.

“It keeps the farmer in the zone of protection it also in most cases prevents the tractor for turning over and over again,” she says.

A similar program in New York helped pay for 1100 roll bars or cages. Julie Sorenson is the deputy director at the Northeast Center for Agricultural and Occupational Health. She says according to surveys, 90 New York farmers escaped injury or death because of that protection.

“It’s a win for the state because the money saved in in relationship to, you know, disability and all the costs related to fatalities and injuries, you eliminate that you allow farmers to do what they do, which is important because you give them one less thing to worry about,” she says.

The National Farm Medicine Center hopes to have its pilot program up and running next summer.