Trailer-Attached Two-Wheel Tractor (Patpat) Accidents on Roads in Turkey

Trailer attached two-wheel tractor (Patpat) accidents on roads are in increasing trend in Turkey. This work examined these incidents to help find precautions to reduce the accidents, casualties and monetary losses. Accidents occurred on roads in Turkey from 2006 to 2016 were studied. The data were analyzed based on the number of fatal and injury accidents, number of killed and wounded, distribution to regions and provinces, accident types, accident timings, features of the drivers, accessibility to first aid, etc. In the 11 year period, 326 accidents (6 fatal, 320 injury) in Police Responsibility Areas (PRA) and 318 accidents (25 fatal, 293 injury) in Gendarmerie Responsibility Areas (GRA) with the total 644 accidents were studied. A total of 1458 people (34 dead and 1424 injured) were affected. The accidents occurred mostly as crash / collision (PRA: 69.6%, GRA: 65.7%) and were most frequent during the summer (PRA: 40.5%, GRA: 43.1%). The incidents in PRA were mostly in urban areas (82.5%) as the ones in GRA were mostly in the rural areas (53.8%). Most of the operators had primary school education (PRA: 68.1%, GRA: 47.5%), were male (PRA: 97.5%, GRA: 97.2%) and had no driver's license (PRA: 63.8%; GRA: 74.2%). These vehicles with no standard structure are not suitable for road traffic as they are slow, with low braking and steering ability and low visibility at night. As the majority of the incidents are of human origin, training and traffic surveillance should be increased. Also, low-cost and safer alternative vehicles are needed