Updated July 2008
Extra rider runovers occur when a passenger falls or is bounced or knocked from a moving farm machine, usually a tractor. The passenger is then runover by the machine or by an implement or wagon being pulled by it. In almost all cases, the machine on which the victim was riding was not designed to accommodate passengers safely. (There were no manufacturer-installed seats with seat belts for passengers.)
Between 1990 and 2004, 49 people were killed in extra rider runovers. From April 1990 to March 2000 there were 111 hospitalizations for extra rider runover injuries.
Extra rider runovers represented 15.7% of all runover fatalities and 14.2% of runovers requiring hospitalization. Children were especially likely to be involved in extra rider runovers. 73.5% of all extra rider runover fatalities and 69.4% of all extra rider runover hospitalizations involved children under the age of fifteen. 61.2% of the extra riders killed were age nine or under.
CAIR’s circumstance descriptions show that children who were killed in extra rider runovers had typically been standing next to the operator, sitting on the knees of the operator, or sitting on a tractor fender. Even tractors with cabs are not safe for children. Over the surveillance period, five child extra riders died when they fell out of a cab door or window and were then runover.
Most agricultural machines are not designed to accommodate passengers of any age safely. Machine operators should not take adult passengers unless there is additional seating installed by the manufacturer. Children should not be allowed to ride on tractors or other agricultural machines, even those with cabs.
Dr. Will Pickett, Co-Director of The Canadian Agricultural Injury Reporting emphasizes that, “Extra rider runovers are all easily preventable. Operators should simply refuse to take extra riders.”
This information is derived from data collected and analyzed by Canadian Agricultural Injury Surveillance Program collaborators and staff. CAIR is funded by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and managed in cooperation with the Canadian Agricultural Safety Association.
For more information contact:
Dr. Rob Brison (via Deb Emerton),
The Canadian Agricultural Injury Reporting,
Department of Emergency Medicine, Queen’s University
Kingston, Ontario K7L 2V7
Tel: (613) 548-2389 Fax (613) 548-1381
Email: CAIR@kgh.kari.net www.CAIR.ca
