The Impact of Human Error in the Use of Agricultural Tractors: A Case Study Research in Vineyard Cultivation in Italy

Mario Fargnoli, Mara Lombardi, Nicolas Haber and Daniele Puri
Additional contact information
Mario Fargnoli: Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, “Sapienza”—University of Rome, via Eudossiana 18, 00184 Rome, Italy
Mara Lombardi: Department of Chemical Engineering Materials and Environment, “Sapienza”—University of Rome, via Eudossiana 18, 00184 Rome, Italy
Nicolas Haber: Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, “Sapienza”—University of Rome, via Eudossiana 18, 00184 Rome, Italy
Daniele Puri: National Institute for Insurance against Accidents at Work (INAIL), Via Fontana Candida 1, 00078 Monte Porzio Catone (RM), Italy

Agriculture, 2018, vol. 8, issue 6, 1-21

Abstract: Recently, standards and regulations concerning occupational safety have become more and more rigorous. Nevertheless, the number of accidents and victims has not decreased significantly, as reported by official statistics. In Italy, the agricultural sector is certainly one of the most affected by this situation, especially taking into account the occurrence of serious injuries and fatalities related to the use of tractors. The main reasons for such a situation can be ascribed to the peculiarities of agricultural operations. Therefore, when analyzing the root causes of agricultural accidents, a user-centered approach is needed in order to make the development of health and safety interventions easier and more effective. Based on this, the present paper proposes a practical case study research focused on integrating the factor of human error into the risk assessment procedures of agricultural activities in vineyard cultivation. Such an approach allowed us to consider the impact of human error—while performing work activities (e.g., the use of a tractor)—on hazards and related hazardous events in a thorough manner. The proposed approach represents a novelty in the sector of the safety assessment of agricultural activities, providing a first valuable basis for further analysis and implementation by researchers and practitioners.

Keywords: health and safety; agricultural machinery; hazard analysis; Quality Function Deployment (QFD); human error; ergonomics; human safety management (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/8/6/82/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/8/6/82/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jagris:v:8:y:2018:i:6:p:82-:d:151860

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture is currently edited by Ms. Leda Xuan

More articles in Agriculture from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().