Jury orders John Deere to pay $5 million for Stillwater man's tractor death

RalphVa · Jan 29, 2020

The guy may have been stupid. We've all been that with new tractors at time. I've marks around door openings to prove mine.

Thought a deader was supposed to provide either filled rear tires or a ballast box.

Ralph

aczlan · Jan 29, 2020

RalphVa said:
The guy may have been stupid. We've all been that with new tractors at time. I've marks around door openings to prove mine.

Thought a deader was supposed to provide either filled rear tires or a ballast box.

Ralph

According to the link above, the tractor had a BB5060 box blade on at the time of the rollover, the stated weight on that box blade is 418#.
The tractor rolled over 1 and 1/4 times per the link. My guess would be that he had the roll bar down and was not wearing a seatbelt.
The widow had a very good lawyer and John Deere had an "expert" who had no business being on the stand.
They should have gone to the page in the manual which specifies that you need weight on the back and pointed out that the tractor had a box blade on the back which provides that weight and avoided letting themselves get trapped into whether or not there was additional counterweight needed from loaded tires or wheel weights.

Aaron Z

ruffdog · Jan 29, 2020

There are lots of newbies that don't get training from dad or grandpa, and yet they still don't read the manual. On her own, my wife went page by page through the manual for the Toolcat. :thumbsup:

dragoneggs · Jan 29, 2020

ruffdog said:
There are lots of newbies that don't get training from dad or grandpa, and yet they still don't read the manual. On her own, my wife went page by page through the manual for the Toolcat. :thumbsup:

Women tend to read and follow directions. Men are too proud to admit they don't know.

ovrszd · Jan 29, 2020

I read the manual front to back of every vehicle I buy. Whether I follow the guidance is debatable. But then it might have been written by the idiot that testified on Deere's behalf in this lawsuit...…..

k0ua · Jan 29, 2020

MossRoad said:
It doesn't matter. Deere states the loader requires rear ballast AND Deere stated the dealer was supposed to install rear ballast. The dealer didn't install rear ballast. The end.

That is why many dealerships won't let a tractor out the door with a loader without including a ballast box. They may GIVE you the ballast box, but it will be delivered with the ballast box. EVEN if you bought a mower to go on it too. The thinking is that if you take the ballast box off and then attempt to use the loader they can say, "your fault" you didn't put the ballast box back on. We provided you with one. I bet we see more of this ballast box on at delivery thing at more dealerships. This dealer will wind up being sorry he did not "give" (figure into the price) the ballast box. If the owner refuses to buy the box, they can still "give" it. Just advertize the machine with a free ballast box. EVEN if they have bought a mower. Look on youtube, how many idiots do you see there with new tractors with not a single dang thing on the 3pt but air with a load in the bucket and the bucket stuck up in the air as high as they can get it and traveling overland with it and saying "this is how you do it with a kubota/john deere/whatever"

I don't think John Deere will be found liable on appeal, as they have already started to throw the dealer under the bus. Now we don't know what the dealer or his hired help said at delivery. They MAY have said, " now be sure to keep your mower on if you use the loader" and this poor deceased may have thought to himself. "yeah right". He has seen plenty of you tube videos of tractors operated with nothing on the 3pt. In fact most. Many dealers will also insist on loading tires if loader is purchased also. For the same reasons.

In the end, of course it is the "fault" through his own ignorance, of the deceased that he is dead. What made him think he was qualified to operate an extremely dangerous piece of machinery? What training did he have? And a tractor IS an extremely dangerous piece of machinery. Which can kill you in a heartbeat. Just like a firearm.

k0ua · Jan 29, 2020

dragoneggs said:
Women tend to read and follow directions. Men are too proud to admit they don't know.

My findings exactly. In training hundreds of women to use handguns, I found that Women made far far better students because they followed my directions because they KNEW that they didn't know a darn thing about the subject. They blindly followed my instructions from the start, and their progress reflected that. Men make VERY lousy students when taking instructions, because they almost always feel that they "know better" or think that they should. And their pride will often get in the way.

Very few women will not instantly obey your instructions and try to carry them out to the best of their ability. I would say that over half of the men intentionally disagree with your instructions, because they feel it is their duty to confront you for fear of losing their mancard.

Wagtail · Jan 29, 2020

k0ua said:
That is why many dealerships won't let a tractor out the door with a loader without including a ballast box.

Well, bugger... My 4105 with FEL was initially delivered with the 3PH slasher (unloaded tyres). When the rest of my implements were later delivered by the dealership, there was a ballast box that I knew that I hadn't ordered. I called the dealership to say that they'd delivered the box by mistake (but that I still wanted it)... the dealership's owner said, "Complimentary".

I still say that it's because I'm one heck of a nice bloke. (Ballcap & a 'bomber' jacket also given to me

)

dragoneggs · Jan 29, 2020

Wagtail said:
Well, bugger... My 4105 with FEL was initially delivered with the 3PH slasher (unloaded tyres). When the rest of my implements were later delivered by the dealership, there was a ballast box that I knew that I hadn't ordered. I called the dealership to say that they'd delivered the box by mistake (but that I still wanted it)... the dealership's owner said, "Complimentary".

I still say that it's because I'm one heck of a nice bloke. (Ballcap & a 'bomber' jacket also given to me )

Dealers are way too stingy around here. They gave me a ball cap only and made it sound like they were going above and beyond. I like the Kubota cap but I could do without the local dealership name stitched in.