Brutal tractor accident

tcartwri · Apr 9, 2015

This is not for the squeemish, but it shows just how quickly things can got wrong. I will give you a heads up, do not follow the link to the first photo on imgur.

LiveLeak.com - Tractor driver's head split open by steel cable in towing malfunction

Dutch445 · Apr 9, 2015

not sure i believe the first picture is actually of this particular accident. tractor rims look to be a different color,
and the ground below is not the same as where the accident happened.
the 2nd pic sure, could be from that accident with the semi behind it.

either way it's a scary accident.

Sysop · Apr 9, 2015

Those look more a truck rim and tire in the first image. I'd have no reason to doubt it is all from the same incident.

Friend of mine showed me a nice trick when pulling with cables like that, hopefully someone who sees this will prepare and be safer. Take a couple chains and lay out straight along side the cable you are pulling with. Use some quick links, carabiners, zip ties, twine, whatever... just hang the chain from the cable loosely every foot or so, and try to do it the full length of the cable, but at a minimum on both ends. Once you are pulling, if the cable snaps, the weight of the chain and the freeplay in the attachment of the chain keep it from flying around. Of course you want to size your chains accordingly as a light swingset chain wouldn't help much of anything, those guys needed some good heavy logging chains hanging from that cable to prevent that.

A heavy rope wrapped around a chain and tied loose on each vehicle will keep a chain from popping and flying when pulling too.

The key to pulling safely is never pull with anything you don't want flying at you, and if you don't want it flying at you, secure it from flying if it breaks.

I feel bad for his family...

Industrial Toys · Apr 9, 2015

Little did he know his fate when he work up that morning. Terrible!

I've broken a lot of chains, never a cable, because I don't use them much, but have never actually seen a chain breaking, present any sort of hazard, as in leaping into the air when attached to a drawbar.

buickanddeere · Apr 9, 2015

Two minutes before the pull if you had stood there and suggested improvements . They would have told you to go away and mind your own business. Much like the people here that insist that they can work safe since they are using common sense and experience to compensate so substandard equipment and techniques.

Bird · Apr 9, 2015

Fortunately, I've not actually seen either a chain or a cable break, but when I was a volunteer fire fighter, we had a grass fire to put out one day that resulted from one truck trying to pull another truck with a chain that broke. And when it broke, it struck sparks off a big rock that started the fire. At least that's what the owner of the trucks said, and I think he was telling the truth.

Sysop · Apr 9, 2015

I've seen chains break and fly. Thankfully from a distance. Typically it's the result of an idiot jerking on it rather than pulling...

Fluid · Apr 9, 2015

Sysop said:
Those look more a truck rim and tire in the first image. I'd have no reason to doubt it is all from the same incident.

Friend of mine showed me a nice trick when pulling with cables like that, hopefully someone who sees this will prepare and be safer. Take a couple chains and lay out straight along side the cable you are pulling with. Use some quick links, carabiners, zip ties, twine, whatever... just hang the chain from the cable loosely every foot or so, and try to do it the full length of the cable, but at a minimum on both ends. Once you are pulling, if the cable snaps, the weight of the chain and the freeplay in the attachment of the chain keep it from flying around. Of course you want to size your chains accordingly as a light swingset chain wouldn't help much of anything, those guys needed some good heavy logging chains hanging from that cable to prevent that.

A heavy rope wrapped around a chain and tied loose on each vehicle will keep a chain from popping and flying when pulling too.

The key to pulling safely is never pull with anything you don't want flying at you, and if you don't want it flying at you, secure it from flying if it breaks.

I feel bad for his family...

Your friend is right about how to stop a cable or chain from turning into a whip when it breaks. When I was young I had a 4X4 truck and me and my friends would go mud bogging till one of us got stuck. We came across some guys that were stuck ahead of us, we offered to help and one of us used a 1973 4X4 GMC Suburban with a chain. Hooked the chain to the front of the GMC and the back of the Ford. The GMC backs up fast, the chain breaks and hits a guy standing next to the Ford and breaks his leg, bad. I take the guy to the hospital because my truck was at the back of the line. He lived, but we all learned a lesson that day. I wrap a chain around cables when I use my warn winch with a long remote switch. I'm sorry that poor soul died the way he did and I feel for his family.

newbury · Apr 9, 2015

I guess I lucked out.
Had a U-Haul car tow dolly lose a wheel. The guy who came to recover it hooked it up to a cable and winch to tow it up on his flatbed.

As the winch pulled on it the chain snapped and FORCEFULLY hit the back of his truck. We were both standing off to the side a bit but well within striking range.

I was always taught to throw something over anything you were pulling with. Like another rope, a boat, a floor mat, just something to prevent the "snap back".