Another tractor fatality...

[rk246]

Here In the Portland area a day or two ago a 28 year old man was killed while running his tractor, it rolled over on him, His wife came out and found the tractor on top of him... Very sad, I am trying to find out more details, ie. Rops? Seat belt? etc. I don't have the rest of the details yet...

 

[CT_Tree_Guy]

Ryan, that's always terrible to hear. Imagine his poor wife, screaming in horror.

I have a feeling if he had been wearing a seatbelt, the tractor wouldn't have ended up on top of him. I urge everyone once again to get into the habit of buckling up as soon as your butt hits the seat.

If you're single, do it for your dog.

 

[rk246]

I can think of nothing worse than my wife and son coming out to the field to find the tractor on top of me...what a image, I am wearing my seatbelt about 99.8% of the time, and the other .2 is just because I forget, I am trying to make it 100...I am wondering if he had ROPS? I will try to get more details....

 

[RoyJackson]

"I can think of nothing worse than my wife and son coming out to the field to find the tractor on top of me..."


I can...your family finding your body wrapped around a PTO shaft. When a tractor rolls over on you, you may be reasonably intact. Going around a PTO shaft...well, you're going to be hamburger.
Or, falling off and getting ran over by a rotary cutter...

 

[riptides]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( I can think of nothing worse than my wife and son coming out to the field to find the tractor on top of me...what a image, ... )</font>

I can remember being of sound mind and begging my freinds NOT to let my wife see me while I was pinned under my tractor.

Needless to say, they could not hold her back. To this day I have this vivid recollection of her sobs in my mind. NOT a memory I care to have...

Now on to happier times.....

-Mike Z. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[wallace]

I guess I was pretty fortunate... When I was 15 years old I was digging sewer line with a AC industrial 50 rubber tire loader backhoe.
We just got out of school for the summer and I was going to my summer job, I have ran the machine for many years.
It had a electrical problem the starter would stay engaged with the key on, so we just made it so we could start the tractor with a power wire and then pull the wire off and continue on.
Well when I had got to the tractor that morning I new what I had to do to get it started. Well when I touched the power someone had left the key on and the tractor had power to the wire and it fired up, the tractor was in gear and it hit me in my left legknocking me into the machine the tire had started to climb over my leg and next thing I knew I was under the tire I guess it wasn't that bad until the bucket dug into the ground and the tractor started to spin on top of me after it was all over I was told by the doctors that I would never walk again, I broke my pelvis in 5 places broke my right femer (leg) crushed both of my knees broke my left ankle and shadered my left foot, I did not end up with any internal injuriges but I did loose the feeling in my left leg.
I was in the hosipital for 6 months and then I went to a rehab in which I was in a wheel chair for 6 months and by the grace of God I am walking today.
I am very lucky I do not have alot of problem today and every body part is real except fpr my hip.
I do not look at this accident and point fingers I just look at it as a lesson learned you can bet that when I or my shop guys work on something NOTHING is taken for granted in the way of saftey.

 

[EddieWalker]

Wallace,

That's quite a story. You are very lucky to have survived such an accident, much less totaly recovering.

It's the real life experiences of guys like you that cause me to stop and think about what I'm doing. It's too easy to get caught up in the project and not in what's safe when operating a tractor.

Maybe somebody who's read this will do something different and avoid an injury. I'm sure I have.

Thank you,
Eddie

 

[CT_Tree_Guy]

Riptides, I respect your desire not to relive this experience, I can't imagine what it must have been like. I'd still like to ask you if you could share some of it with us so we can learn from it and stay safe, but I understand if you'd rather not.

And Wallace, thanks for sharing that incredible story with us. I wouldn't be surprised if you just saved someone's life. I'm very glad that you proved the doctors wrong, I guess they didn't know who they were talking to. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

John D.

 

[KubotaSteve]

Mike,
That's a pretty frightening thought for me which is why I have decided to share a recent goof-up on my part.
Let me preface this story by saying I know it was my fault, and my being in a hurry and to some extent laziness that caused my incident, so there is no need to tell me what I should have done, because I knew it all along and didn't do it. I'm sharing this hoping it might open other's eyes.
While my story is no where near as tragic as the ones shown here, it could have been. I was plowing snow on Friday (we had about 4 inches but it was suppose to stay cold so I wanted to get it cleaned off so it didn't turn to ice. I cleared the flat drive with no problem and the turn around area. I went out on the main road and it was quite snow covered and packed tightly. I decided to scrape some of the snow off it front of my drive to ensure the wife wouldn't slide accross the road. You can see for quite a ways so cars weren't a concern. I'm back dragging with the bucket some snow in the road using a little down pressure and as I start backward it the driveway the front tires lift slightly and the rear starts to slide and I see a car approaching faster than they should. I push down farther on the reverse pedal to move back a little faster. That's when everything started to happen. I missed part of the driveway from sliding sideways and from the road down the my yard is about a 4 foot drop. As the left rear slides down into the culvert the right rear stays up on the drive causing the tractor to be at a severe angle with the right front tire off the ground about 6 inches or so. It almost threw me off the machine and flipped it over on its side. I was hurrying and didn't put the ROPS up as I would have to take it back down to put it in the shed. And since the ROPS was down the seatbelt wasn't on. I had to get the wife to pull the tractor out as it wouldn't pull out on its own. My point is that I was planning on plowing snow on a flat area which would seem to be relatively safe as FEL will not be raised high and snow wasn't really that heavy, however the right circumstances came together and the worst almost happened. Needless to say the ROPS will go up from now on regardless of the task at hand.
As I said, I know I messed up and have all ready heard the lectures from the wife of how she would have to tell the kids. She never said anything about missing me, but did question the amount of my life insurance /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif and when she found out the amount I could see the wheels turning on what she could buy /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif.

 

[circleTfarm]

The worst I can remember was when I was a kid, and I will never forget. With that being said,, A little comon sence and this would not have happend,
there was a gentelman that my grandfather knew, I remember grandpaw was off that day (something just wasen't right )then my brother and I found out why ,when this friend of grandpaws was going to brush-hog , his grandkids wanted to go with him , so he must have thought whats the harm,
well he decited to put the kids (1 boy 1girl) on the mower deck itself,sometime while he was cutting the little boy ended up falling infront of the brush-hog and got ran over. grandpaw never heard the little girl's screams.. this was the worst kind of tragedy.the grandfather was never together mentally again . thats why we all must use our heads about safety....