BACKGROUND: Motor vehicle incidents involving agricultural machinery or equipment are an area of increasing concern. These incidents comprise an important segment of both fatal and non-fatal agriculture- and forestry-related traumatic injury. Research suggests that vehicle speed, lighting, and signage contribute to agricultural roadway injury incidents. To better quantify these incidents, researchers from the New York Center for Agricultural Medicine and Health (NYCAMH) obtained and analyzed electronic records from the New York State Department of Motor Vehicle (DMV) Accident Reports (MV-104) for 2010-2012.
METHODS: Researchers used electronic accident reports to augment an existing agricultural surveillance system in New York State. Cases of interest were identified through two means: registration type, and vehicle body type. The subset of identified cases were then analyzed using several factors, including injury severity, roadway characteristics, weather conditions, and type of incident.
RESULTS: For the three-year period, researchers identified 212 cases of interest, which involved 398 vehicles and 507 individuals. Four cases resulted in fatalities; 99 non-fatal injuries were recorded. Collisions with other vehicles were the most frequent type of incident (cases n=171). Other types of incidents recorded included crashes into ditches/over embankments (n=8), collision with fixed object (n=8), and overturns (n=5). Cases appeared to be geographically associated with rural areas.
CONCLUSIONS: DMV data add additional detail about roadway injuries that are unavailable in other NYCAMH surveillance data. Additional research is needed to determine the usefulness of these data over a longer period. Geographic distribution indicates the most frequent accidents appear in densely agricultural areas, where many farmers travel on public roadways with farm equipment to access fields. These results are important to share with farm and non-farm drivers alike. In recent years, NYCAMH has seen an increase in requests for vehicle signage and roadway safety trainings, so this topic is especially timely.