Rollover claims farm worker

ABBOTSFORD — An 87-year-old worker at a hobby farm in Abbotsford, British Columbia was fatally injured when he became pinned under a tractor on July 19.

James McDonald was on a “fairly steep incline,” when the tractor rolled over and he was trapped underneath, reports Constable Ian MacDonald, public relations officer for the Abbotsford Police Department.

Police were alerted to the rollover when it was spotted by passing motorists.

“The tractor had a roll cage on it, but either the operator wasn’t belted in, or there was some problem with the belting device,” MacDonald says. The worker was “thrown from the cab and, ultimately, was pinned underneath the tractor.”

Police, firefighters and paramedics worked together to retrieve McDonald, who “was breathing for only a matter of seconds” before he succumbed to his injuries, MacDonald adds.

If an operator is in his seat with a seat belt on, a roll bar “keeps him in that protective zone,” says Bruce Johnson, executive director of the Farm and Ranch Safety and Health Association in Langley, British Columbia. The device also prevents the tractor from repeated rollovers, generally stopping the vehicle after one, Johnson says.

Roll cages, for their part, will only provide protection if an operator is secured within the cab of the tractor, MacDonald points out. He recommends that harnesses always be worn, and checked before each use to ensure they are working as intended.

Johnson urges operators to exercise caution when driving on any uneven surface. “You have to kind of know the terrain you’re operating in to make sure there are no dips or rocks that might upset the wheels,” he says.

Tractor-related accidents are one of the leading causes of agriculture worker deaths in British Columbia, Johnson says, estimating that there have been at least five such fatalities over the past year.

Indeed, information from the Canadian Agricultural Injury Reporting program notes that between 1990 and 2005, farming machinery was involved in 70.9 per cent of fatalities. Of that, machine rollovers accounted for 20.5 per cent of deaths.