Large part of the planted Rio Grande do Sul area is intended for the cultivation of crops that require the use of agricultural machinery for its cultivation, but the inappropriate use of these machines provides a greater number of accidents, especially the movement of machinery on highways. The objective of the study is to characterize the agricultural machinery accidents occurred on federal roads in the state of Rio Grande do Sul emphasizing its main indicators. The records were obtained from the Traffic Accident Bulletin of the Federal Highway Police, covering the period of January 2008 to September 2011. The indicators evaluated were type of accidents, causes, time of day, highway where it occurred and the age of the injured. The use of nonparametric statistics was done and the data evaluated through frequency analysis and chi-square test of independence. The most frequent cause was the lack of attention, the kind with the highest percentage was the rear-end collision, the time of day with the highest number of accidents was the afternoon, the highest percentage of casualties is aged between 40 to 44 years and highways with the highest number of accidents was the BR-285 and BR-116. It is recommended that the tractor only get in the highway following the traffic rules and safety, and that the operator take short breaks when working for long periods
tractor; traffic accident; machine operator
