Mulcher kills sleeping man

[Scooby074]

A horrible situation where a mulcher ran over a sleeping vagrant man while cleaning up an urban trouble spot thats been home to a murder and roberies in the past.

Hopefully it was nobody who is a regular here. I dont know how anyone could sleep in close proximity to a mulcher, theyre pretty noisy. Clearly just an awful industrial accident.

Mulching machine runs over man while he slept | KOB.com

 

[CompactTractorFan]

Awful...

 

[Transit]

Easy not to know anyone is working with a mulcher, the guy was most likely in a deep drunken stupor, we see them passed out on the street all the time.

 

[Ductape]

I'm with transit........... pretty fair odds he was under the weather. Not the mulcher operator...... the bum.

 

[teg]

Just wonder if they know the guy "sleeping" by the log was alive or already dead?

 

[Taylortractornut]

I worked with 2 guys on a job one time that had similar misfortunes like this. One grew up as a farmer and was combining wheat. A hitch hiker had passed out in the thick wheat from drugs he was on. My friend didnt know he was there till he saw him go into the header table. The teeth on the reel stabbed him and the sickle mower and auger mangled him. The other guy was a utilities ROW mower with about 8 big armored tractors. He and his son and brother were all mowing a large swath under a power line. And the tractors being caged in like are they cant see everything. He was running a Brown MFG rotary mower and straddled some smaller trees and saw some clothes fly out the back. Turns out this man had been missing for a few days and had died the day before. THis guy never got on a mower again he let his broather and son run the tractors for several years after that.

 

[Jaylegger]

That is just awful. I have to ask though. Wouldn't the "safe job procedure" for operating a mulcher such as this be to first walk the area being mulched to ensure it's clear of hazards and or people.

 

[Scooby074]

personally, i think he was passed out drunk in the deep grass/underbrush or dead.

No way a normal person could not hear that machine coming. I suppose he could have been deaf, but still, youd see it, or feel the vibrations. Not like it could sneak up on you.

I would also assume that the operator did a relatively thorough check considering the area was a hangout for bums (likely the main reason to remove the undergrowth), but you cant check everywhere. Dark clothes laying behind a fallen tree would be hard to see at the best of times.

I gather he's been on the job there for a couple of days. Heres a background piece on the cleanup. Dated a couple of days before the accident.

http://www.daily-times.com/ci_17494691

 

[boggen]

i hate to say it, but when mowing tall grass / weeds 1 foot or higher. it can be darn down right impossible to see things in the grass / weeds. i remember a few stories over the years, of mowing pastures, and end up mowing over a baby cow. or some other animal. heck even with a bucket right near ground level as a rotory mower on back. you still can't see or keep tree limbs from finding there way back and into the mower until it is to late, and it almost stops the tracker dead in its tracks.

you can only do so much even if you walk the area first to check for things.

as far as sound goes and being woken up by noise. drunk or drugged up. it doesn't have to be that. there are folks that are very heavy sleepers. like me. i could have sirens from ambulance, fire trucks, police, helicopter landing near by and still not wake my rear up. and this has happened. folks living in town near a busy highway more likely get use to noise vs folks living in a quite area.

it was an accident not much can be done about it. i would say.

 

[Gio]

One **** of a wake up call.