Agricultural Vehicle Crash Surveillance, 2018-2023
The Agricultural Vehicle Crash Surveillance Report summarizes information gathered from police accident reports (PARs; also referred to as police crash reports) reported to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) through the Illinois Crash Information System (CIS). Starting with data collected in 2018, this report includes common descriptors and reasons for crashes, vehicle-specific data for agricultural vehicles involved in crashes, demographic characteristics of people involved in agricultural-related vehicle crashes, and temporal and spatial patterns using the CIS. Based on this analysis, agricultural-related vehicle crashes are common in Illinois, with reported crashes widely distributed across the state. Most crashes occurred during months when planting (May/June) and harvesting (September to November) occur, demonstrating seasonality in collision incidents. Additionally, workdays saw higher crash totals compared to weekends, with Monday through Wednesday seeing the highest crashes. While the number of agricultural-related crashes accounts for a small subset of the total number of crashes seen in Illinois, these incidents may be underreported, and the severity of these types of crashes may also be greater due to the nature of the vehicles or machinery involved. Therefore, greater surveillance efforts are vital to comprehensively describe agriculture vehicle crash characteristics, including their prevalence and severity.
- From 2018 to 2023, the total number of crashes involving agricultural vehicles decreased from 622 in 2018 to 501 in 2020 and 2023, with a slight increase seen in 2021 (n=518).
- The point of first contact was the front of agricultural vehicles in 12.2% of crash cases compared to 20.8% of non-agricultural vehicles, indicating that many of the collisions involve the agricultural vehicle getting rear-ended by a second vehicle.
The months with the highest instances of crashes were September (10.4%), October (16.3%), November (12.0%), and June (10.8%).