Evaluation of farm tractor-related fatalities.

Farm tractors are the major cause of occupational fatalities in agricultural regions. Fatalities typically result from being run over or crushed by the tractor, becoming entangled in the moving parts of the tractor, accidents on roadways, and tractor rollovers, which involve the tractor tipping sideways or backwards and crushing the operator. In this study, tractor-related fatalities in the Konya province of Turkey are retrospectively evaluated. Out of the 3940 cases on which a death examination and/or autopsy was performed between the years 2000 and 2007 at The Konya Branch of Forensic Medicine Council, 86 (2.2%) of the death cases were caused by tractor accidents and are included in this study. The ages of the victims varied between 3 and 80 years old with a mean age of 31.7 + or - 22.3. Sixty-eight (79.1%) of the cases involved males, while 18 (20.9%) of the cases involved females. In 32 (37.2%) of the cases, the deaths due to tractor accidents occurred when the tractor overturned. In 37 (43.0%) of the cases, the tractor-related fatalities involved the passengers and the drivers were involved in 34 (39.5%) of the cases. In conclusion, tractor accidents are preventable and deaths from tractor accidents can be significantly reduced if drivers are required to wear safety belts and helmets and frequent checks are implemented to enforce the ban on carrying passengers.

Injuries and deaths occurring as a result of bull attack.

Persons whose occupations are in animal husbandry may be seriously injured or killed while tending to animals. Bulls are among the most dangerous of these animals. In this study, seven deaths and 23 traumatic injury cases caused by bull attacks and treated in the General Surgery and Chest Surgery Department of Selcuk University Meram Medical Faculty Hospital are presented. Of the 30 total cases, 24 were male and 6 were female. The ages of the cases ranged from 33 to 86 years and the average age was 60.3 +/- 12.4 (mean +/- standard deviation). All of the death and injury cases occurred while engaged in the care of bulls. It was also determined that the injuries were in the chest region of five (71.4%) and in the head of two (18.6%) out of seven death cases; and in the abdominal region of 14 (60.9%) and in the chest region of nine (39.1%) out of 23 traumatic injury cases. Of the 14 cases that were in the abdominal region and treated surgically, 11 were perforation of small/large intestines, whereas hemorrhages involving the intestinal mesentery, intraabdominal hemorrhage due to perforation of the abdominal wall, and splenic laceration were determined in one case each. There were one or multiple costal fractures in all nine chest injury cases, flail chest in five cases, and hemothorax, pneumothorax, or hemopneumothorax were determined in six cases. Of the chest injury cases, tube thoracostomy was performed in six whereas the other three cases were discharged from the hospital after supportive care. It was concluded that animals such as bulls might be the cause of serious trauma ending with death for those working in the animal husbandry. For this reason, caution is required while feeding and working with bulls. Risk can be reduced by chutes, gates, restraints, special housing, and confinement facilities. Also, wearing protective helmets would be useful especially for preventing head injuries.