Agricultural Machines Lacking Safety Devices... Accidents Concentrated During Farming Season
Fatality Rate 10 Times Higher Than General Traffic Accidents
Up to 150% Increase in Farmers' Traffic Safety Awareness Through 'Agricultural Machinery Accident Prevention Technology'
Agricultural machinery driving guidance sign installed on an actual road. The sign displays information such as the type of agricultural machinery and the approaching distance.
More than 1,000 agricultural machinery accidents occur every year. In particular, due to the nature of agricultural machinery work, safety devices are insufficient, resulting in a fatality rate that is 10 times higher than that of general traffic accidents. The Rural Development Administration (RDA) has actively promoted accident prevention technologies using the latest technologies, as well as safety rule education and safety campaigns.
On the 21st, the RDA announced that it will expand the field distribution of the 'Internet of Things (IoT)-based Agricultural Machinery Accident Prevention Technology' through inter-agency collaboration.
An RDA official explained, "According to the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, agricultural machinery accidents have consistently occurred at over 1,000 cases annually, with 1,121 cases in 2019, 1,269 in 2020, and 1,076 in 2021, concentrated in May and October, which are busy farming seasons. In particular, over the past five years, the average number of agricultural machinery traffic accidents has been about 380 cases per year, and the fatality rate is about 10 times higher than that of general traffic accidents."
Accordingly, the RDA is focusing on protecting farmers and agricultural workers and creating a safe working environment by establishing field-customized implementation strategies and forming a dedicated safety organization for farmers to promote various disaster prevention projects.
In particular, to prevent agricultural machinery accidents, the RDA developed IoT-based agricultural machinery accident prevention technology through four years of basic technology development and field verification from 2017 to 2020. This technology consists of a terminal attached to agricultural machinery and a road LED driving guidance signboard. After short-range wireless communication between the terminal and the guidance signboard, information such as the type of agricultural machinery and approaching distance is displayed on the signboard. General vehicle drivers who check this information reduce their speed or pay attention, thereby lowering the probability of accidents.
The terminal attached to agricultural machinery is also equipped with 'Agricultural Machinery Overturning and Rollover Accident Detection Alarm Technology.' When an accident such as overturning or rolling over is detected, the accident information is sent to the accident victim's mobile phone application. If the victim does not respond within 20 seconds, the accident information is sent to pre-registered guardians or related organizations such as agricultural technology centers. Recently, the Jinan Fire Station in Jeonbuk linked this technology with the fire station's shared terminal to establish a rapid dispatch system.
The RDA plans to build a response system that links accident information sent from the agricultural machinery terminal with the 119 emergency dispatch system in collaboration with the National Fire Agency and to expand pilot operations together. Recently, the Jinan Fire Station in Jeonbuk also established a rapid dispatch system by linking this technology with the fire station's shared terminal.
In fact, from 2021 to last year, the RDA installed 33 guidance signboards and distributed 610 terminals in 14 regions nationwide where agricultural machinery operation is frequent and accident risk is high. As a result, the average vehicle speed in the installation areas decreased by 11%, and speeding vehicles on roads with a speed limit of 60 km/h decreased by 25%. The traffic safety awareness of farmers in the installation areas increased by up to 150%.
The RDA is standardizing the road LED driving guidance signboards to be produced and distributed as products and is consulting with organizations such as the Korea Road Traffic Authority to add them to traffic safety facility standards. It also plans to cooperate with local governments to distribute road LED driving guidance signboards in rural areas where agricultural machinery-related accidents frequently occur. This year, technology support will be provided to Gangwon-do and Gyeonggi-do.
Lee Chung-geun, head of the Safety and Disaster Prevention Engineering Division at the RDA, said, "We plan to continue collaborating with related ministries and industries to distribute IoT-based agricultural machinery accident prevention technology in the field. We will do our best to quickly distribute the technology on-site to ensure the safety of farmers and the public."
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