Gate Kills 54 year old in LaGrange Texas

[txdon]

LaGrange is having it's share of freak accidents lately. Fisrt the bees (see Kyle's thread) now this.

The Giddings Times and News paper reported that a 54 year old was driving his small truck from one field to another across a cattleguard when he did not notice the bar that goes across it was only partially open.

The pipe entered the windshield by the inspection sticker and pierced the left side of his neck and exited the right side of his neck. His wife found him.

Tragic.

The bars I have seen are usually lower and would hit the headlight. The bar is usually a hinged lockable pipe that is used to stop vehicle traffic. If it was open partially aimed right at the driver all the driver would see is a dot.

 

[Bird]

Don, that's not only a terribly tragic accident, but a possibility that I would have never thought about. I've never heard of such a thing happening before.

 

[EddieWalker]

Scary.

I've had branches come in and pin me while on my tractors. It's not just the dozer, which is the worse, but on the others too. I've had the thought that one of these days, I'm gonna get stuck to the seat and not be able to move!!

I wonder how fast you have to be going for a pipe from a gate to go through your windshield and your neck without being able to get out of the way or stop.

I guy I know who did insurance work for Alstate back in Califiornia had a case where a pipe come off a truck on the freeway and as the car behind it drove over it, it somehow came up through the floorboards and pieced the lady driver through her upper torso and the seat. I don't remember the exact location that it went through her, but she survived it.

Eddie

 

[RoyJackson]

This is one reason to have reflectors (which probably would not have helped in this case) and a flag (such as you see on kid's bicycles) on structures such as gates, especially at the ends.

This has never happened to me, but I have read of similar accidents in the past.

 

[JazzDad]

"Freak Farm Accident"

Weimar Mercury - Story #0731-I

 

[Bird]

Just in case anyone's wondering what happened . . . well, what happened was Bird's experimenting. txdon originally started the thread in the Rural Living forum, then JazzDad posted a new thread with a new title in the Safety forum with the link to the same news story. So I moved txdon's thread to the Safety forum, then "merged" the two threads into one, partly to eliminate having two threads on the same topic and partly just to see if I could.

 

[JazzDad]

Well, you did it, Bird. Just what you did, we may never understand.

Seriously, I hadn't considered the possiblity of this scenario, either. The pipe was facing the truck, so instead of a long (visible) line, it was just a point (the end of the pipe) facing the driver. We will never know if any speed was involved.

 

[fgross335_2210]

I saw a show with a case like this on the Discovery Channel. An oilfield pipegate was 80% open and the end of the pipe actually came through the truck's grill/headlight, through the firewall and then through the person's ribcage and truck seat! The person was trapped. The trucks battery was also destroyed and the truck's 2-way radio didn't work. After a couple of hours another worker found the man. Emergency crews eventually cut out most of the seat and pipe along with the man and hauled it all to the emergency room. Luckily for him all vital organs were pushed out of the way when the pipe entered his ribcage. Other than cracked ribs and a couple of huge scars the man made a complete recovery.

 

[turnkey4099]

Sorta OT but it does involve a gate and fatality.

I took a report on dispatch years ago of a fatality caused by a big farm tractor (4wd, bend in the middle type). He pulled off the highway to enter his field and saw the guy asleep in his sleeping bag a bit too late. Just an innocent hiker who picked the wrong spot to camp out.

Harry K

 

[txdon]

Thanks Bird. I was debating whether to post in Rural living or the Safety forum. Wiemar is on the other size of LaGrange from Giddings, I guess all the local papers picked up the story. Wiemar is a nice town, I was born there.

I was considering putting this type of gate (a pipe) across my cattle guard. Now, I will make sure it has a large, non penetrating, visible end.