Because of the serious accidents involving tractors, accident researchers are calling for stricter safety regulations and a ban on driver’s licenses from the age of 16 in agriculture. The risk of a fatal outcome in accidents with tractors – relative to the mileage – is 56 times higher than in the comparative value with passenger cars, said the head of accident research for the German insurance industry, Siegfried Brockmann, in Münster.
In 2019 – in the particularly meaningful last year before Corona – 59 people died nationwide in accidents with tractors and 618 were seriously injured, according to a study by the insurers. The proportion of tractor accidents with fatalities and serious injuries is well above the overall average.
So far, according to Brockmann, young drivers in agriculture from the age of 16 have been allowed to drive tractors weighing tons with a speed limit of 40 km/h – with a limit of 25 km/h also with trailers. However, it is not the speed that is decisive in the accidents, but the length, width and mass of the tractors. With two trailers, they are completely comparable to a heavy truck, said Brockmann. “Do 16-year-olds have the maturity – the answer is no,” said the accident researcher. However, the researchers do not have a breakdown of the number of accidents for 16 to 18 year olds.
Prevent accidents with two-wheelers
Brockmann also called for emergency braking and lane change assistants to be made legally mandatory for tractors in order to prevent accidents involving two-wheelers in the “blind spot” – for example when motorcyclists overtake the tractor and it turns off at that moment.
At the meeting in Münster, the accident researchers used a crash test to simulate a typical collision situation when turning between a tractor and a car traveling at 60 km/h. The driver replaced by a dummy would have been “100 percent dead” in an actual accident, Brockmann said after the accident. Collisions with tractors happened very often when turning tractors and turning off dirt roads onto the road, Brockmann said.