Date of incident: June 2021
Notice of incident number: 2021179030014
Employer: Orchardist

Incident summary

At a fruit orchard, an orchardist was operating a farm tractor with a mower attachment to cut the grass in between rows of apple trees. The tractor and mower slid off an embankment in a part of the orchard that was on sloped ground, causing the tractor and mower to roll over. The orchardist sustained fatal injuries.

Investigation conclusions

Cause

• Tractor and mower slid from an embankment and rolled over. The orchardist backed the mower attachment over the edge of the embankment in the orchard, likely intending to dismount from the tractor to remove wire that was entangled in the right mower blade. Before he could do so, the mower slid down the embankment, and pulled the tractor with it. The tractor rolled over once and came to rest upright. The orchardist was found unresponsive about 1.5 m away. It is believed that the orchardist miscalculated how close the rear wheels of the tractor were to the edge of the embankment.

Contributing factors

• Inadequate housekeeping. Investigators observed loose rolls of fence wire at numerous places in the orchard, including on the ground. Had the orchard grounds been cleared of loose wire, the risk of the mower becoming entangled with wire would have been greatly reduced.
• Possible lack of a slope assessment. It was not determined if a slope assessment had been completed for the orchard. A properly conducted slope assessment would have identified the significant slope change at the embankment edge in the corner of the orchard where the incident occurred and likely would have identified that area as posing a risk of rollover for mobile equipment.
• Possible lack of health and safety program. The investigation could not find evidence that the orchardist had implemented an occupational health and safety program for work in the orchard. A health and safety program would have helped the orchardist identify unsafe conditions and work practices.
• Possible lack of hazard identification. It is not known if the orchardist documented a prior event when one of the orchard tractors slid off the embankment in the same corner of the orchard. If the orchardist had documented and investigated that event, the hazard of operating a tractor in that sloped corner of the orchard would have been identified and the risk of tractor rollover could have been assessed. Proper hazard identification could have led to the development of a risk mitigation strategy that could have included a rollover protective structure or safe work procedures that met the requirements of the Occupational Health and Safety Regulation.

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Audio slide show about other rollover incidents
View an audio slide show based on WorkSafeBC incident investigations into previous tractor rollovers: Three crushed in tractor rollovers.