Project Overview
The leading cause of occupational fatality on farms is tractors. The average tractor is over 25 years old. Older tractors are less safe than newer tractors. Many older tractors are operated by individuals with increased risk of being injured or killed on a tractor. Hands-on tractor safety workshops are a vital tool for teaching operators safe tractor operation but currently there are no guidelines available for conducting such workshops. The Penn State Agricultural Safety and Health Program has been approached several times in recent years for help in teaching new and young workers and farmers safe tractor operation. Project objectives were to conduct hands-on tractor safety workshops and develop detailed guidelines for organizing and conducting such training to help farm producers that are operators/managers/supervisors conduct their own training for employees or other producers.
A 16 page draft of the guidelines was developed, and a workshop with farm producers who have employees was organized and conducted. The participants were presented with project background, an overview of the guidelines, participated in a hands-on training with the guidelines in their hands as a reference, and sat down to review and evaluate the guidelines in detail. The post hands-on training review involved guided discussion about each major section of the guidelines. This procedure was followed for two additional workshops with feedback and evaluation comments incorporated into each succeeding draft.
The finalized guidelines are available on two websites: eXtension (eXtension.org/agsafety) and at Penn State (agsafety.psu.edu).
Number of Participants: 54
PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS
There are no promotional materials available for this project.
EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS
There are no educational materials available for this project.
REPORTS & EVALUATIONS
There are no reports or evaluations available for this project.