'In a Millisecond': Kansas Farmer Recalls Near-Tragic Accident

Kansas State Expert Stresses Importance of Rollover Protection Equipment

In an instant, Fred Levendofsky knows his life could have changed forever.

Thirty years ago, the Belleville man was a young farmer and father of two young children. One day, he was weeding with a tractor and mower around a pond in a cattle park near his parents' house.

“I thought everything was fine,” he recalls. “The tractor seemed stable. I was mowing at low speed, moving slowly.”

Then the rear wheel of the tractor fell through an eroded area of ​​the dam. The tractor overturned.

“The next thing I know, I was on my head, on the roof of the cabin,” he said.

Fortunately, that day, Levendofsky said, he chose to use a tractor with a cab.

“It saved my life,” he said. A window in the cabin shattered during the rollover, allowing Levendofsky to escape.

Today, he looks back with gratitude on watching his children grow up and graduate from college, and having the opportunity to meet his grandchildren and share in their activities. He and his wife, Connie, continue to live and farm north of Belleville.

“I was lucky,” he said. “My life could have changed in a millisecond.”

Newer tractors have cabs and rollover protective structures, called ROPS. That’s not the case for many older tractor models still used on farms today, according to Tawnie Larson, a project consultant in the Carl and Melinda Helwig Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering at Kansas State University. Larson runs a program to raise awareness about tractor accidents and promote a ROPS rebate program.

Larson said most tractors built after the mid-1970s were equipped with ROPS, but it wasn't until 1985 that ROPS became standard equipment on new tractors.

“Many farmers still use older tractors without roll bars,” she says.

ROPS are roll bars or safety cages for tractors without a cab. ROPS create a protective zone around the operator in the event of a rollover. When used with a seat belt, the ROPS will prevent the operator from being thrown and crushed by a rolling tractor or by equipment mounted or attached to the tractor, according to the National Farm Safety Database.

According to national statistics, 96 people a year are killed by tractor rollovers, the most common cause of death on farms. Eighty percent of those killed or injured are experienced heavy equipment operators.

According to Larson, ROPS are 99 percent effective in preventing death or injury when used with a seat belt. Yet, she adds, only half of the tractors still in service in the United States are equipped with ROPS.

Beginning in 1986, U.S. tractor manufacturers began voluntarily adding ROPS to all farm tractors over 20 horsepower sold in the United States. the national ROPS discount program (NRRP) is a voluntary program that offers rebates of approximately 70% of the cost of purchasing and installing a ROPS kit.

Larson said K-State Research and Extension — through the Carl and Melinda Helwig Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering — worked with the NRRP to seek and secure support through public and private funding and partnerships to provide Kansas farmers with the rebate program to retrofit an older tractor.

According to Larson, the average cost of a ROPS is $1,200, but the estimated cost of a fatal rollover to a family and farm is more than $750,000. She notes that in the last eight years, 10 Kansas farmers have died and six others have suffered serious injuries as a result of tractor rollover accidents.

“About 30,000 farms in Kansas operate without ROPS on at least one tractor,” she said.

For more information on applying for the rebate program when it becomes available in Kansas, call 877-767-7748 or visit ropsr4u.org to be added to a waitlist.

Individuals may also contact Larson at [email protected] or 785-532-2976; or Ed Brokesh at [email protected]785-532-2907.

PHOTO: Fred Levendofsky, a farmer in Belleville, Kansas, narrowly escaped disaster when his tractor overturned while he was mowing 30 years ago. (K-State Research and Extension News Service)