Combine driver charged

[MHarryE]

Passenger vehicle drivers, including small trucks, raise the stress level of many of us large equipment operators when they pull over and stop, then expect us to maneuver large equipment around them. Combine maneuverability is difficult because of size, but towed implements are worse because in the case of something like a cultivator, the end of the machine may be 40 feet to the rear of the tractor's drive tires and an articulated tractor is even more difficult to maneuver than a solid frame. The preferred method is to stop and let the small vehicle maneuver. Sometimes, however, we are forced by the small vehicle because they sit planted, and if we strike them they complain. I now sit them out - increased patience comes with age. In my earlier years with Gleaner Combine I was involved with overseeing testing along with design. Sitting in coffee shops with operators in the custom harvest was always interesting. The term "road rage" had not yet been coined but combine operators were filled with it being incensed with vehicle operators who appeared to lack any comprehension that a large, difficult to maneuver machine was something with which they needed to be alert. Even though I got my driver's licenses in agricultural states, I do not remember any driver's training about how to drive when encountering farm equipment.

 

[dave1949]

Lot of different things involved in this.

How to drive around large equipment certainly couldn't hurt. Even at that in some areas there will be people mixing with large machines that have no idea what the machine can and can't do.

It sounds like sun glare could have played a role. We have some east-west roads that at the right time of day you can't see, period. Dark sunglasses or maybe gas welder's goggles would help.

Years ago in my short career as a tractor jockey (1968-70) I had to take a rolling cultivator through a narrow 2-lane bridge with a steel super structure. The cultivator filled the bridge side to side. Any dip in the bridge deck would be enough to shift the 3pt an inch or two. I would creep through that bridge and here a tink, tink now and then.

But, I don't think farmers in that area and time period would have considered taking equipment on the road that blocked the entire road all the time. Normally the berms were wide enough I could leave all or most of one lane open. Towed implements were just coming to that area as farms consolidated and expanded their equipment.

Maybe the combine driver was headed for a hole between mailboxes, signs, etc. and thought the driver would wait for him to get over when he could. Maybe the van driver couldn't see, or was distracted, not really paying attention.

 

[Dr_Zinj]

Insufficient data to make a determination.
However, I lay fault on the passenger vehicle driver. He was driving too fast for conditions. He didn't identify an obstruction in the road prior to hitting it. He was driving into the sun with impaired visibility.

Reminds me of one accident investigation I did in Washington DC where a bus driver came to an intersection, stopped, then tried to pull through it and was T-boned by another car. Bus driver couldn't see the color of the single, overhead traffic light because the setting sun was directly behind it. Car driver, who was speeding, did have the green light but wasn't paying attention to other traffic. Bus driver saw the car, but misjudged its speed. Managed to save the bus driver's job as it was clearly a poorly designed intersection, and there was no other way for him to determine the color of the light short of getting out of the bus and walking about 20 feet from it to avoid the glare.

 

[MHarryE]

This was the second fatal vehicle - combine accident in IL in one month. In the other accident the combine driver stopped at an intersection, then proceeded to pull out in front of a truck. The picture shows the drivers side of the pickup sheared off - driver dead, passenger uninsured, combine driver injured and charged.

Five other reports regarding the accident this thread covers state investigation continues, charges pending.

Using Google Earth, the accident site appears to be a 2 lane blacktop state highway in farm country but not of the large, flat field variety found in Northern IL. Highway does not appear to have very wide shoulders.

 

[Gator6x4]

A few years back one of the guys at work in a rural area met a farmer coming towards him with his large 4 wheel drive tractor and cultivator in the transport position. The guy was driving a 3/4 ton company truck and pulled over until the drivers side wheels were in the ditch and then stopped...but the farmer still managed to collide with him. The cultivator managed to open the truck up to the cab! Amazingly enough, the farmer, when he realized he was hooked into the truck, didn't stop and see if the driver was ok, he just started to try to extradite the cultivator from the truck! Unbelievable!

Now that would be a true "Road Hog". :laughing:

 

[Jim in ICT]

Plenty of combines and other farm equipment to manuver around here. Depending on the implement, the road surface, width of road shoulders (if any), and whether we are meeting or overtaking them, we usually give the farmer the right of way. This could mean coming to a stop & pulling off the road completely, or both of us giving up a bit of the road for the other. They're normally not going far and as big as combine is, you can usually plan accordingly.