Another tractor fatality...

rk246 · Dec 12, 2005

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 · Dec 12, 2005

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 · Dec 12, 2005

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 · Dec 13, 2005

"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 · Dec 13, 2005

( 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 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 · Dec 13, 2005

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 · Dec 13, 2005

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 · Dec 13, 2005

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 · Dec 13, 2005

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 · Dec 13, 2005

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....

riptides · Dec 13, 2005

Hello John,

My story is here Roll Over

I was but a lurker then....

Steve Austin gets some serious help with his bionics and I get plastic. What is wrong with THAT? /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

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

Badfinger · Dec 13, 2005

I guess it's been twenty years ago now that my wifes Uncle called and told us about a next door neighbor kid in Kentucky. He was about twelve years old as I recall and using his dads tractor in a field across the road about fifty yards from the house. I can't recall exactly what he was doing but he wasn't fooling around. I think He was trying to pull a stump or something like that and the tractor reared up and flipped over backward. I remember seeing the little red and Grey tractor in their barn yard as we would drive by on a visit to her Uncle's place. Sadly, the part burned into my mind was that the exhaust stack speared him to the ground killing him instantly. They took f..o..r..e..v..e..r to remove him because they didn't know how to get it off of him. This was witnessed by several brothers and sisters. Please be careful!

 
Jim

trlong · Dec 13, 2005

Another sad event. Hopefully, it was not due to carelessness or lack of seatbelt or ROPS use. I'm beginnig to think it should be required that at least three "Safety" threads be read before TBN members can join. But then, we have the freedom to choose. After rolling once (no injuries...previous post..), I choose seatbelt and ROPS. Hopefully, I'll continue to choose to keep my mind on what I'm doing, at all times.

Tom

RedRocker · Dec 13, 2005

( Hello John,

My story is here Roll Over

I was but a lurker then....

Steve Austin gets some serious help with his bionics and I get plastic. What is wrong with THAT? /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

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

I guess you need to have 6 million for the good stuff.

BobReeves · Dec 13, 2005

As much as I hate to admit it my 3000 has no safety features at all, previous owner even jumpered out a bad neutral safety switch and I haven't bothered to replace it. Every time I approach that tractor I tell myself "This thing will kill you if you are not careful". I read the safety forum regularly and it helps me keep thinking "Be careful and extra cautious".

The day it arrived the wife came out and was pretty excited, her dad was a farmer and she use to drive an N, first thing I sad to her was "Don't ever forget, this thing can kill you in a heart beat".

DrRod · Dec 13, 2005

Its amazing how fast something can happen and how easy it is to get into the job at hand and forget some critical safety detail. I'm very new to the whole tractor thing and I have already done some dumb things. I've stopped the tractor to move a branch out of the way, shut off the PTO, unbuckled the seat belt, and climbed down -- only to be surprised that the engine shut off. Oooops -- left it in gear. The seat sensor shuts it off so that's good and the HST generally holds it still. But what if on a hill? Maybe the gears would hold it but I don't know and shouldn't try to find out.

And once I backed my ATV out of the garage and started to pull forward only to discover that it was still in reverse which sent me back over a steep bank. I managed to stop before I went too far but a little further and I would have flipped. Again, just doing regular stuff but not paying close enought attention.

I once heard of a guy who put stickers all over his farm for his kids -- they didn't have instructions or warnings, they just said "think." Good advice.

rk246 · Dec 13, 2005

Scary stuff, I think sometimes we forget that we are all capable of having this happen to us. It seems that we always think that it can't happen to us, its always the other guy.... Just always gotta remember that life can change in a second... On my property definetly always Rops up and seatbelt, I will make it 100%... I am just wondering if Rops and seat belt are enough?

Cottonhawk · Dec 14, 2005

"....On my property definetly always Rops up and seatbelt, I will make it 100%..."
Great idea and I will do the same.
"...I am just wondering if Rops and seat belt are enough?...."
Excellent question. In addition to ROPS and seatbelt I keep an eye on my tilt-meter whenever I am on a slope. And I try to be careful all the time.

CT_Tree_Guy · Dec 14, 2005

I am just wondering if ROPS and seat belt are enough? 

Ryan, you've been reading my mind, and I think it's time you moved on to more challenging material (but that's not my main point).

Your comment echoed my thoughts on adding a shoulder restraint system in addition to, or replacing, the existing lap belt. One of my priorities is to construct a FOPS/roll-cage for the tree-bota. I'm obviously always working around trees, and one of my concerns is getting squashed against one if (when?) I tip over. I can think of no better way to stay safe than to be in a roll cage wearing a full restraint system, just like the NASCAR boys. Just the ticket for those embarrassing "endos" down the straightaway, or in my case, down a steep embankment. Sure would be nice to say, "wow, that was quite a ride", instead of merely breathing my last breath. IMHO, my life is worth the 5 seconds it would take to slip into it every time I climb in.

Even without a roll cage, a shoulder restraint might make a lot of sense for anyone using a tractor. It wouldn't be too hard to attach them to the ROPS. While we don't have to worry about the kinds of forces involved in an automobile crash, it might be nice to be held securely in place during a roll-over. I wonder how many tractor operators have been wearing a seatbelt and still been badly injured or killed due to lack of a shoulder restraint? To those who think I'm going overboard, which maybe I am, I assure you that I'm going to draw the line at installing airbags. Although ...... /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

Keep up the good work, and thanks for starting this great thread on such an important topic as our survival.

EddieWalker · Dec 14, 2005

Probably the most dangerous and prone to tipping over tractor out there is a skid steer. They have full cages and a shoulder bar that goes over your head and shoulders to hold you in like on a roller coaster. No way to even start the machine unless the bar is down and your held in position.

I don't know it all skid steers are this way, but it sure is the most secure method I've come across.

I think there's a lap belt too, but since I have so little experience with them, I don't know for sure.

Eddie