Gravel bullets

[wrenchturner]

As I was driving down a two lane country road, I watched a man mowing his yard turn the mower around in his gravel driveway near the road. As I pased, rocks pelted my car and cracked the windshield. Whenever I mow near a road, I always stop when cars are approaching. Also, I bought a used bushhog and the first time I sharpened the blades, the retaining bolt was all but out. The previous owner had not tightened the nut on the bolt.

 

[patrick_g]

When I was in the service a guy on another base (I used to read the accident/incident reports) was walking down the side walk on base and keeled over dead with no apparent cause. At autopsy a small piece of rusty wire was found to have entered his temple and made a mess of his brain. There had been a couple tractors mowing in the area and it was assumed one of them threw a piece of debris (small piece of wire) out through the safety chains.

I parked a new car at the BX and returned a few minutes later to find a large dent in the chrome trim around the windshield. There was some "rock dust" at the impact site. There were tractors with rotary mowers working in the area.

I guess I was lucky it hit the trim and not the windshield with me still in the car.

Pat

 

[Mace Canute]

Here's another story about "gravel bullets". I used to work for the provincial power utility (retired now) and a few years back we got a call one day about a line contact. A tandem gravel truck contacted a 14,400V power line when he raised his box to dump his load. The electricity arced over the tire to earth and as it did so, it damaged the tire sidewall enough to cause it to blow out. The truck was parked on a graveled hard surface and there was a van parked a dozen feet away, along side it. When the tire blew, the force of the air released blew a considerable amount of gravel off the surface and literally peppered that van from one end to the other. All windows on both sides were blown out, and the sheet metal was totally destroyed by the hundreds of rock hits that severely dented it and in many places the paint was knocked out of the deep dents. There were even holes in it from the odd larger sharp edged stone. I have no doubt that anyone caught by that blast would have been severely injured, and possible killed.

 

[Mike Costello]

My pet peeve is gravel haulers that don't clean off their side rails etc. after they dump their loads. Twice, I've lost windshields to bouncing rocks that fall off the sides of the trucks. Both times, I've had no maneuvering room to get away from them on the freeways. In one instance, I had fallen considerably back to avoid the rocks when I saw a rock coming right at me as straight as can be. Then the came the infamous sounding "crack".

 

[zmoz]

A couple years ago I was mowing with a plain old push mower with a little 3.5hp Briggs engine. I still don't know what caused it, but the entire end of the crankshaft, with the blade attached, just broke off leaving a sharp jagged crankshaft. The blade lodged itself in the grass bag, which it totally destroyed and made a crater in the ground. If I had been mowing without the bag it probably would have hit me dead on.

Engine still runs though...

 

[doall]

I have a friend who has a brown tree cutting bush hog. The guy he bought it from was telling him how dangerous it was for anyone to be within 500 feet of it. He had 3 guys clearing some land, the two with saws had walked over to the tractor operator and told him they were going to eat lunch. He told themhe was going to cut back toward the trucks. He waited until he though they were far enough away and engaged the pto, but when he did it slung one of the knives off the 750lb fly wheel. The other two were just walking back to the trucks and one of them just fell like he stepped in a hole. He said that's what he thought happened until he looked down and didn't have a leg below the knee. Be careful with any mower.

 

[TWD]

Done this edging the lawn, and mowing with a bagged push-mower too.

Also, have been hit in between the eyes with pebbles from mowers and edgers.

I now wear a full-face shield when mowing or edging to prevent losing an eye.
None of those cheapy uncomfortable face shields either!

Uvex Bionic Face Shield I actually have 2 now, they are soo affordable, and worth it!

 

[kattywumpus]

Here's another story about "gravel bullets". I used to work for the provincial power utility (retired now) and a few years back we got a call one day about a line contact. A tandem gravel truck contacted a 14,400V power line when he raised his box to dump his load. The electricity arced over the tire to earth and as it did so, it damaged the tire sidewall enough to cause it to blow out. The truck was parked on a graveled hard surface and there was a van parked a dozen feet away, along side it. When the tire blew, the force of the air released blew a considerable amount of gravel off the surface and literally peppered that van from one end to the other. All windows on both sides were blown out, and the sheet metal was totally destroyed by the hundreds of rock hits that severely dented it and in many places the paint was knocked out of the deep dents. There were even holes in it from the odd larger sharp edged stone. I have no doubt that anyone caught by that blast would have been severely injured, and possible killed.

This sound like an event in the movie Final Destination.

 

[Mace Canute]

This sound like an event in the movie Final Destination.

It sounds like you are saying I am taking a movie event, claiming it for my own, and telling it here which would mean you are calling me a liar. I certainly hope that is not the case.

I can assure you I am relating a real event which happened here a few years ago.

 

[dmccarty]

Scary stories.

When I bought my rotary mower it had a rubber shield on the front of the mower but nothing on the back. After people started to build on the road I would mow I put chains on the back of the MX 6. I don't mow the road frontage much anymore since people now live on those lots.

But when I used to mow the frontage on the private road I would try to watch behind me to make sure nobody drove up behind me. I would stop mowing the few times people drove up. I still do this when I mow down there.

A year or so back we got an umbrella policy to cover in accidents.

Years ago in our city house I was edging and the Stihl picked up a 77m stone which is about the size of a half a peanut. The stone went right into my sliding glass door. It took a few hours but eventually the safety glass fully cracked and eventually shattered.

Using the DR Brush Cutter around the house is always a concern. I don't use the MX 6 much around the house but I am near enough where a rock or blade could hit the house. The kids are not allowed out of the house when I am mowing around the house.

One day the kids ran down the driveway when I was mowing our road. I was a good 200-300 feet away from the kids when I hit a big stick with the MX 6. The kids saw it happen. Which was good. Showing them what the MX 6 can do to a chunk of wood and how far it was thrown reinforced what I have been telling the kids for years.

Later,
Dan