Safety of Operators' Movements on Access Paths of Mobile Machinery

Access to and from the safety cabins of mobile machinery (tractors, earth moving machines, etc.) typically involves climbing up or down a few steep steps. Slipping, tripping and falling accidents are common when entering and especially when leaving the cabins. Safety of access paths (including steps, hand holds, and doors) depends on their mechanical design, and on operators' movement practices (e.g. jumping instead of climbing down). To improve the safety of access paths, existing paths were measured, and the use of different paths by different drivers was studied by interviews and from video recordings using 3-dimensional motion analysis.