John Deere announced this week that it was recalling 147,900 compact utility tractors in the United States after it was discovered that they could lose braking and crash.
The recall was issued by the US Consumer Product Safety Commission on Thursday. The recall models include the 1023E, 1025R, and 2025R compact utility tractors. According to the notice, the models of the John Deere tractors pose a “crash hazard” to users if their front bell crank in the brake linkage fails.
The alert warns that those who own one of the recalled tractors should not operate them until they are repaired for free by an authorized John Deere dealer.
There are more than 2,000 John Deere agricultural, construction, and forestry equipment dealerships across the US and Canada that can repair the recalled tractors.
“If the consumer is not able to transport the tractor to a dealer’s location, then the dealer will make arrangements to repair the unit at the consumer’s residence,” the CPSC recall said.
So far, only four instances of the tractors having a brake linkage failure are known by the company, one of the failures led to a hospitalization, and two caused impact injuries, according to the CPSC.
The tractors that malfunctioned suffered “minor” damage.”
John Deere shared a statement on the recall with Fox Business, noting that safety is the most important thing for the company.
“For this reason, in cooperation with the US Consumer Product Safety Commission, we are voluntarily issuing a recall to address a potential crash hazard on John Deere 1023E, 1025R, and 2025R compact utility tractors purchased from November 2017 through July 2024,” the company said.
The recalled tractors were manufactured in the US and sold at John Deere dealers across the country.