An Evaluation of Operator Perception in Manual Handling of Front Foldable Rollover Protective Structures Mounted in Narrow-Track Tractors

Despite the progressive reduction of agriculture fatalities, accidents data is still alarming with 160 deaths per year in Italy, more than 60% of which involving tractor rollover with the crushing of the driver for lack of protective devices. The folding version of front rollbar (Foldable Rollover Protective Structures, FROPSs) has been designed to allow tractors to operate in low overhead clearance conditions. However, due to the discomfort in FROPS handling, the farmers often leave them in the folded-down position. Concerning this unsafe behavior and considering the growing female role in agriculture activities, the present study aimed to evaluate the perceived difficulty by users in handling the FROPS considering: i, gender of the user; ii, front ROPS mass; iii, expertise level in using the tractor (expert, casual or novice user).Five narrow tractors were evaluated. The tractors were all fitted with front foldable ROPS with a mass ranging from 17 to 55 kg.A test panel was selected to perform an evaluation on the handling of foldable ROPS. The test panel was composed of 31 operators, 20 men and 11 women. A survey was submitted to the test panel and the results were analyzed with Kruskal-Wallis Test to evaluate if the safety performance of the foldable ROPS were affected by the operator behavior and perception.The results denoted a different perception in the front ROPS handling between male and female operators. In detail, expert male operators were mainly able to perform the front ROPS handling but the ROPS mass affected the operation. For the female group, in the manual handling a non-ergonomic design approach was clear.