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MUARC hosts farm machinery experts

21 September 2005

Two US experts in farm machinery safety visited the Monash University Accident Research Centre (MUARC) last week to investigate a world-leading model for tractor safety.

From left: Dr Eric Hallman, Dr Lesley Day and Dr Mark Purschwitz.

Dr Eric Hallman, director of the Agricultural Health and Safety Program at Cornell University, and Dr Mark Purschwitz, from the National Farm Medicine Centre in Wisconsin, gave a joint seminar on US agricultural equipment safety.

They are now touring regional Victoria to explore organisational and technical issues associated with modifications to tractors, as well as meeting farmers, machinery dealers and Workcover officers.

Senior MUARC research fellow Dr Lesley Day said the US researchers had been eager to visit Victoria as the state was leading the way in farm machinery accident prevention as a result of the retrofitting of roll-over protection to older tractors.

She said an average of three people had died in roll-over incidents on Victorian farms each year before 1998, the year the retrofitting program and associated legislation were introduced. Since then, the average has fallen to one roll-over fatality per year, with no deaths recorded this year.

Dr Day said the Monash University Accident Research Foundation had partly sponsored the visit, as Dr Hallman, an engineer, had valuable expertise to contribute to a long-term MUARC study into serious farm machinery injuries. The study aims to gather information about the major causes of these injuries and ultimately improve safety for farm workers.