2 Fatal accidents in todays paper

[Tollster]

One was an elderly gent that roled over soon after starting his mowing on a bank. His wife found him dead, he died of massive head and chest trama.
The other sounds more grusome as he was run over by his own bush hog. Our paper is very small by the way, so this is a shock to the community.
Jst a reminder: Ya'll take it easy with your tasks, do not hurry and forget about your other jobs that need to be done. If you have not performed the task at hand, or more importantly, if you have done it many times.... such as these elderly gentlemen have done....Think about it again and don't grow complacent, people look forward to seeing you everyday!

 

[N80]

There's no way of telling with the few details available, but it sounds like three things would have made a big difference in both of these cases: ROPS, seatbelt, operator presence switch on seat. All three can be aggravating but they will always be functional on any tractor I own.

Question is, when are we too old to use our beloved tractors?

 

[schmism]

There's no way of telling with the few details available, but it sounds like three things would have made a big difference in both of these cases:

i dissagree

i belive ONE thing would have made a big diffrence.....

COMMON SENSE


<rant> i hate when "people" use accidents like this to force more "safety" crap on me.... why dont we all walk around in steel toe boots, wear helmets, and nomex suits 24/7? ohhhhhhhhh even better, we all live in little plastic bubbles and keep ourselves isolated from the dangerous world around us </rant>

 

[KubotaSteve]

I believe common sense and safety go hand in hand.

 

[RoyJackson]

I believe common sense and safety go hand in hand.

Exactly!

 

[mboulais]

There's no way of telling with the few details available, but it sounds like three things would have made a big difference in both of these cases: ROPS, seatbelt, operator presence switch on seat. All three can be aggravating but they will always be functional on any tractor I own.

Question is, when are we too old to use our beloved tractors?

The idea of an operator's presence switch irritates me. People need to take responsibilty for thier own safety, not rely on a government mandated safety device to protect them from themselves. Have you ever read the book "1984"? If not, you should it's where we are headed.

Moderation in the protection of liberty is no virtue; extremism in the defense of freedom is no vice.
Senator Barry Goldwater
1909—1998


Those who desire to give up freedom in order to gain security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.
President Thomas Jefferson
1743—1826

 

[N80]

i dissagree

i belive ONE thing would have made a big diffrence.....

COMMON SENSE


<rant> i hate when "people" use accidents like this to force more "safety" crap on me.... why dont we all walk around in steel toe boots, wear helmets, and nomex suits 24/7? ohhhhhhhhh even better, we all live in little plastic bubbles and keep ourselves isolated from the dangerous world around us </rant>

You have no idea what role common sense had in these accidents. These were old guys, either one of them could have been stricken by an MI, stroke or other sudden illness before their tractors killed them. No one disagree with using your head, but there really is no room for jumping to conclusions in these two cases since we don't know the details.

And its amazing that we often rant and rave over these saftey features as intrusive, big brother infringements on our civil rights all the while failing to recognize that we haven't and might not even be capable of thinking about all the different, unpredicatable and and unpreventable ways that accidents can happen that these very minor and unintrusive saftey features can totally prevent.

Like I said, consider an old guy in a tractor with no ROPS and/or no seatbelt. He's driving along mowing near a ditch. Suddenly he has a stroke and looses function of his right arm. It stuns him, he doesn't pay attention for a second and starts toward a slope. By the time he tries to do something with his left hand, he's flipped and the tractor crushes him. Now, put the guy in the exact same position, but belted in with a ROPS. Yes, he's still having a stroke, but he aint dead.

Same situation, no driver presence switch, not seat belt. Guy with diabetes or heart disease blacks out and falls off tractor. Tractor and mower run over him. Family gets to enjoy 2 hours of Friday 13 compacted into one moment. Put a seatblet on him or driver presence switch and you get a much different story.

So lets dsipense with all the nonsense about intrusive saftey devices until you are absolutely sure that the only thing that kills these unfortunate people is lack of common sense.

If we're going to take this stance on 'all saftey things are bad and promote idiocy' then hey, lets go all the way and get rid of railings on balconys, smoke detectors, seat belts, motorcycle helmets (welcome to SC!), safetys on guns etc, etc. The whole notion is silly.

And what is wrong with operator presence switchs? Mine causes zero problems. It has a 'stationary PTO' feature so that if you tilt the seat up the tractor stays running. My 16 year old drives my tractor. My 70 year old dad might drive it. I wouldn't let them operate it without a functional switch.

Sigh.

 

[turbo36]

And its amazing that we often rant and rave over these saftey features as intrusive, big brother infringements on our civil rights all the while failing to recognize that we haven't and might not even be capable of thinking about all the different, unpredicatable and and unpreventable ways that accidents can happen that these very minor and unintrusive saftey features can totally prevent.


Sigh.

Good post. As I get older and more easily tired the more I appreciate the safety equipment that saves my butt during a moment of distraction. For those of you that don't like things like ROPS and safety switches I suggest you dismantle them and throw them away, this will increase your chances to get that coveted "Darwin" award you seem to want so much.