THE SAFETY OF AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY

1. Accidents in agriculture: prevention and safety, some data

Difficulties in the supply of raw materials for the production of essential goods due to the Covid health emergency and the sudden labour shortage, especially seasonal labour, caused by the lockdown and border closures, resulted in a significant decrease in the number of reported occupational accidents in agriculture. The decrease that emerges from a comparison of monthly data provided by INAIL as of 31 December 2019 and 2020 is 19.6%. Compared to 32,692 cases reported in the corresponding period of January-December 2019, the number dropped to 26,287 in the subsequent 12 months.

Let’s try to understand, in the following paragraphs, when a hazard may arise and how to use a machine such as a mower safely.

2. The cardan shaft, a potential danger

The power of machinery can be transferred to various operating machines in the form of rotary motion by connecting to the special male couplings of the power take-offs via a cardan shaft.

The latter solution is the most widely used and also the most problematic in terms of accidents that occur. It’s estimated that adding the fatal accidents of professional farmers to those of non-professional users, such as those who are formally retired or private individuals who carry out various agricultural activities as hobbies, results in between 30 and 50 deaths a year.

These are fairly brutal deaths, occurring within fractions of a second and are caused, in most cases, when a limb or flap of fabric gets entangled with an unprotected part of the cardan shaft.

In most cases, however, such accidents also occur due to a lack of awareness of the danger. They are often also due to failure in carrying out proper maintenance on the cardan shaft and the countershafts of the operating machine.

3. Using a flail mower safely

Flail mowers can be dangerous both for the driver of the tractor who risks getting his legs caught up when attempting to remove trapped shredded material with the machine in motion,and for other operators who might be hit by debris thrown from the rear.

For safe shredding, we recommend choosing a CE-marked flail mower, with an operating and maintenance manual and a declaration of conformity, and working around the machine with the PTO disengaged or, even better, with the tractor switched off. And, as far as possible, protective guards should not be altered. It’s also important to make sure that the cardan shaft is well-protected and that nobody is nearby when this operation is being carried out.