A Survey on the Accidents of the Power Tillers in Korea

동력경운기 이용실태 조사분석(I) -농작업사고에 관하여-

A survey was conducted to investigate the power tiller accidents. Eight provinces were covered for this study, and 278 power tiller owners were selected randomly by computer random generator. The results are summarized as follows : A. Frequency of accident. (1) Each power tiller had an accident 0.98 times a year and once every 361 hours of use. Higher frequency of accident was found during the miscellaneous operations including the preparation for farming operation, and there was one accident for every 92 hours of use. (2) The power tiller, which are more than six years old, met an accident 1.19 times a year , or one every 311 hours of use. This value was the highest one compared with any other group. (3) Kerosene engine power tillers met an accident 0.97 times a year, or one every 389 hours of use. It was one tie a year, or once every 329 hours of use for diesel engine power tillers. (4) Among diesel-engine power tillers, 10 horse-power group showed a higher frequency tillers. B. Cause of accident (1) The accidents of power tiller were mainly of sefety , which occurred due to the lack of attention during the operation and 47.4% of the total accidents. The next was of accidental, which represented 26.3% of the total accidents. (2) High percentage of safety accidents occurred during the preparation for farming operation including adjustment. Most of the accidental accidents occurred during the transportation. (3) Lower frequency of accident was found in the power tiller group which were operated by the 21-40 years old operator in comparison with that of the power tiller which was operated by other age group. Power tillers which were operated by high school graduates experienced less accidents compared to other education levels. C. Damage by accident (1) Eighty seven pescents of the total accidents caused damage to the power tiller operator , and 13 % of the total accidents caused property damage only. (2) With regard to the damage to the power tiller operator, 73.8% of the total accidents caused light injury but 26.3% caused heavy injury. (3) Accidents which occurred during machine preparation , and farming operations caused minor injury to the operator, but the accidents during transportation caused heavy injury which cost more than 15 days for recovery. (4) Among the 39 accidents , which caused property damage 18 accidents were from the transportation . Among the total property damage accidents 53.8% were light one which cost only less than 1,000 won. (5) The property damage from each accident cost 1,017 won, on the average, with regard to the kinds of operation, the highest property damage occurred during transportation work, with the value of 2, 965won.