5/7/06 - A MELBOURNE company is set to become the first in Australia to retrofit roll-over protection structures with seat belts.

The new ROPS, designed and manufactured by Clifton Hill company Hercules ROPS, will also soon be available in the USA and Europe.

Hercules ROPS Managing Director Martin Cooper said tractors in the US and some countries in Europe had to be fitted with ROPS and seatbelts.

"Research has shown that while it is better to have a ROPS than no ROPS at all, the risk is significantly decreased if you have a seatbelt on," Mr Cooper said.

"One of the natural tendencies for people when they roll a tractor is to jump off, but if you have a ROPS the best place for you to be in on the tractor.

"The benefit of a seat belt (with ROPS) is that it keeps you within the zone of clearance."

He said many Australian farmers chose not to wear a seat belt on tractors with ROPS, despite studies in Australia and overseas showing that it dramatically reduced tractor roll-over death rates.

For example, over the 30-year period in Sweden where ROPS and seat belts were phased in, tractor roll-over death rates fell from 12 deaths per 100,000 tractors to 0.2 deaths per 100,000 tractors.

A Monash University study in 1998 found the effectiveness of ROPS "was greatly enhanced by the use of seat belts".

Mr Cooper said that under US Department of Labour occupational health and safety regulations, ROPS and seatbelts had to be fitted for agricultural operations which had 10 or more employees.

He said Hercules was exporting its new ROPS with seat belt provision to the US and Europe, and that it made sense to also distribute them in Australia.

"We decided to improve our product in Australia and make them really safe," he said.

"We redesigned and retested the ROPS to incorporate seat belts - these ROPS have a bracket on the ROPS itself."

Mr Cooper said Hercules was not increasing the price of their ROPS to include the cost of the seat belt provision, which they hoped would encourage farmers to buy them.

He said the new ROPS had been fully tested and certified to Australian and international safety standards.

The Weekly Times, July 5, 2006
By Danielle Le Grand