Dangerous Projectile

[keitho]

A friend of mine does trial exhibits for lawyers and he told me about a wrongful death case he worked on recently. It was almost unbelievable!
About 2 years ago there was a Highway mowing crew cutting a median with a large "bat wing" rotary cutter and one of the blades came off, blew a hole through the steel deck, flew 283 feet and hit a highway employee in the head (It went right through his hard hat and took off the top of his head!) The blade continued on and put a dent in a metal light pole 100 feet away! This happened to the guy with 2 people standing right next to him!
It was a very disturbing story, but it really made me think about how many times I've been somewhat in the vicinity of a rotary cutter. It really shows how much energy and momentum those blades have.

 

[roysallis]

About 2 - 3 years ago in Mississippi a highway mower lost a blade or threw some object that hit someone traveling the interstate and killed somneone in the car.

 

[RBManufacturing]

While I was still working for the highway dept., We had
an employee that had to leave work an hr. early for an
appointment. I drove out to his mowing assignment, and
let him take the truck back to shop, and I decided to
finish his mowing, and drive tractor back. About 10
minutes into job, I heard a loud BANG, then what sounded
like a helicopter. The u-joint at p.t.o. end of brush-hog
drive shaft snapped, and drive shaft flew over 100 ft.
before hitting a tree. Left about a 1 in. gash in tree.
Luckily not a populated area. Next day employee said
"yeah it's been making noise for a few days." As highway
dept. employees, we were responsible for DAILY checks of
our equipment. I had a very short conversation with him.
Wonder where he's working now.
I taught my crew this scenario after that.
What if every day your job was to hold a gun to your head
and pull the trigger. Would you check the gun to insure it
was empty every morning????? The rest of the day you were
to point the gun at innocent people. Would you check it
every morning to insure it was empty????? You better
because your life or someone elses could depend on it.
The same thing goes here with this job. CHECK THE
EQUIPMENT DAILY. Drastic scenario? I don't think so under
the circumstances. Rick

Rick Hedgecock
R&B Manufacturing

 

[Harv]

The owner's manual for my 5-foot rotary cutter says to shut 'er down when anybody comes within "several hundred feet".

It's abundantly clear to me why they say this now, but I'm wondering about the logistics of doing it. I plan to mow around the house and it seems to me that windows and walls may do little to stop a blade-motivated rock or bolt.

I also wonder about cutting near the roads, which is inevitable on my property. How do you veterans handle this?

 

[Thomas]

Last year a fellow tree farm was useing a big trimmer with a blade on the end of the unit,the blade had a defect and snap in to and one piece of the blade struck him in the leg.
Thank goodness his son was with in sight seeing distance and rush hid father to the hospital.

One can never be to careful.

Thomas..NH /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

 

[Bird]

Harv, I guess some risk is inevitable. Of course I use a finish mower instead of the brush hog near the house (much lighter blades) and no windows closer than about 4' to 5' to the ground. And when I mow alongside the road, I watch pretty carefully for any traffic (which thankfully is pretty scarce), and if a vehicle approaches I just stop the tractor (not the PTO or mower blades) until the vehicle passes. However, you've probably noticed that if the highway department (or one of their contractors) is mowing, they never slow down for traffic; just hope for the best.

The summer we worked in the RV resort in Virginia Beach, one of the teenagers working there was on an ordinary riding mower that shot a rock right through a travel trailer window. That's when the boss decided he had plenty of other jobs for the teenagers and to let us older guys handle the riding mowers in hopes that we were a little more careful about things like that./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Bird

 

[TWINKLE_TOES]

Big or small things that run in circles at high speeds are dangerous.

This is an exert from a really sad article I stumbled across recently while looking for a chain trimmer.

In August 1997, Peyton Pytlewicz of Dothan, Ala., was playing when she was hit in the skull by a metal link as her grandfather was trimming weeds 35 feet away.

"The metal link becomes a deadly piece of shrapnel," estimated speed 240MPH.

Weed Wizard Acquisition of Bradley, Mich., which acquired the product after the child's death, settled a lawsuit by her family for $7.35 million.

 

[PaulB]

Harv - I check the 3 big nuts under the deck of my mower every time I use it (the 2 that hold the blades, and the one in the center that holds the blade carrier to the power shaft). I don't have but will fabricate this winter front and rear rubber guards for the mower: some say chain is superior. Those are the only precautions I can think of, other than not mowing when people are near to the best extent possible.

 

[Bird]

PaulB, I hope you have better luck with the rubber guards than I had. You'd like for them to hang low enough to stop any projectiles; however, if they hang low enough that something pushes them back into the blades, they won't last more than a few minutes, so if you're going to fabricate them, make sure they're far enough out from the mower than a blade can never get to them. Even then they may wear out faster than you like. I tried twice using a heavy conveyor belt material before I made my own chain guards.

Bird

 

[roysallis]

Paul, I recommend using chain instead of rubber guards. I think there was a previous post where someone made some chain guards. You may want to search for that thread. When I am brush cutting or using a lawnmower I make sure there is no one is around. Years ago, the company I worked for had safety meeting each month. I remember one particular meeting that was on lawnmower safety and they had some graphic pictures and stories of people injured and killed by objects (metal, rocks, sticks, etc.) thrown by mowers. I actually saw someone get their big toe cut off while starting a lawnmower. You cannot be too safe.