UC Davis' Western Center for Agricultural Health and Safety has been awarded a federal grant to help tackle the leading cause of death and serious injury in American agriculture -- tractor-related accidents, which annually kill more than 250 farmers, family members and farm employees.

The campus center is one of 10 university-based research centers collaborating on the research initiative, being supported by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. The $504,000 grant will allow these centers to study tractor-related incidents and explore new techniques for promoting safer tractor use.

"Tractor-associated injuries and deaths affect every agricultural region of the country," said Marc Schenker, chair of UC Davis' Department of Public Health Sciences and director of the campus's Western Center for Agricultural Health and Safety. "These funds allow our center to be part of a nationwide effort to reduce these preventable tragedies in agriculture.

"More importantly, it means that a California perspective will be part of this effort," Schenker added, "and the results will be relevant to the ways agriculture is practiced in this state."

For its part in the initiative, UC Davis will be working with agricultural centers in Colorado, Iowa, Kentucky and North Carolina to determine the costs of injuries to tractor operators who are involved in overturn accidents and highway collisions. They will also identify who bears the expense of tractor injuries and accidents, using recently collected data on the frequency and severity of injuries related to tractor overturn accidents. This will yield information on the financial losses that could be averted by either retrofitting existing tractors or replacing them with equipment that protects the driver in the event of a rollover accident.

UC Davis has a long history in research aimed at preventing tractor-related injuries and deaths. In 1956, a research team including UC Davis agricultural engineer Coby Lorenzen designed and successfully tested the first agricultural tractor rollover protective structure. Such structures, when used with seatbelts, have proven effective at virtually eliminating fatalities and serious injures. However, it is estimated that half of the approximately 4.7 million agricultural tractors in the United States lack rollover protective structures.

In addition to the cost assessment to be conducted by UC Davis and its partner centers, other research funded through this new initiative will include:

• testing community-based social marketing related to tractor safety at 36 sites across the country;
• assessing the impact of changes in rollover protective structure standards, regulations and technology on the future availability of such devices;
• exploring possible financial incentives to retrofit tractors with rollover protective structures; and
• creating a database of potential partners to help guide the planned national campaign and launching an intranet to aid communication about tractor safety among the research centers.

The partners in this tractor safety research effort are the nine Centers for Agricultural Disease and Injury Research, Education and Prevention, as well as the National Children's Center for Rural and Agricultural Health and Safety, all funded by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

Established in 1990, the nine agricultural centers represent a major federal effort to protect the health and safety of agricultural workers and their families. They are located in California, Washington, Colorado, Texas, Iowa, Ohio, Kentucky, New York and North Carolina.

More information about the UC Davis Western Center for Agricultural Health and Safety is available online at http://agcenter.ucdavis.edu/. More information about the nine agricultural safety centers can be found at http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/agctrhom.html.

The children's rural and agricultural health and safety center is located in Wisconsin, and its Web site is at http://www.marshfieldclinic.org/nfmc/pages/default.aspx?page=nccrahs_welcome.