Post Hole Digger Death

A lady in our county died yesterday due to an accident involving a tractor powered post hole digger.

Details are unavailable but what I have heard (from one of the EMTs) is that one arm got hung in the auger and she tried to free it with the other and it also became entangled. Both arms were ripped off before her husband could disengage.

Shuddering

I rode a post hole digger for two summers as my dad and I put up more that two miles of fencing. Old Ford didn't have enough down force to push digger down so I held it straight as it started to dig and rode it all the way down. Had to wear slip on shoes, tight jeans, no belt, and a very tight too small t-shirt. Parent would be thrown in jail for that now. Dad always had his foot on the clutch and one hand on the throttle so he could shut it down in a hurry. I was 14 and 15 years old during those summers.

This scares the H E double L our of me.

That is really a shame. Some people just don't realize how deadly some of the implements we use are. I grew up working on farms in the 70's, and it was quite common to see farmers with one hand, because the other was lost to a corn picker.

That is really too bad, I hate to hear of such accidents. Those 3 pt augers are dangerous if you need downforce and don't have it. Be safe, get a downforce kit or a FEL mount hyd auger. FEL mounts are a 1 person operation safely in the seat of the tractor.

TomSeller said:

That is really too bad, I hate to hear of such accidents. Those 3 pt augers are dangerous if you need downforce and don't have it. Be safe, get a downforce kit or a FEL mount hyd auger. FEL mounts are a 1 person operation safely in the seat of the tractor.

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I know of at least one instance where a guy lost his leg when the digger picked up an old fence that was below the surface of the ground and took him with it. Those thing are scary.

2LaneCruzer said:

I know of at least one instance where a guy lost his leg when the digger picked up an old fence that was below the surface of the ground and took him with it. Those thing are scary.

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Wow, I never thought of that. Some barbed wire buried in the grass wrapping your ankle and pulling you in would be dangerous.

This should be posted in the Safety forum....for more people to read.

This thread has me thinking.

I usually sit in the seat while operating the PHD, but I have had my adult son's nearby, while digging on my old property.

I'll have to worry more about buried barbed wire now.

I can't begin to imagine what her husband went through, and is now going through.

As a kid, I helped on a threshing crew. Still dangerous, but in some respects I think that the big/long drive belts that the old tyme stationary implements were driven with provided much more natural visual warning - most kids over about 8 y/o knew instinctively to keep clear - farm kids at least.

A hired hand on a relative's farm got his boot laces tangled up in a PHD. I believe his foot was saved, but he broke most of the bones below the knee in that leg/ankle.

Visually, the auger appears as dangerous, and it certainly is. I too hadn't thought about buried objects like an old fence, that adds a whole new dimension of danger.

In most advanced industrial (factory) environments it has been mandated for a long time that all rotating shafts and assemblies be guarded.

What is extremely easy to forget about is the PTO shaft itself. IMO, from an evolutionary standpoint, our eye/brain link is not naturally programmed to interpret a round spinning PTO shaft as DANGER.

Can I say as a young lad, I never jumped over a rotating PTO shaft ? No. A bit of luck got me past those days, and I now treat anything connected to a big powerful tractor with a lot more respect.

Condolences to the family, and community.

Rgds, D.

I recall my dad chewing me out one time that I ran between the tractor and baler. I never forgot that. He sure impressed on me what would have happened if I tripped and he didn't see me fall down. Machinery is dangerous and I bet the husband in this case will be haunted by the accident.