Kubota Death

[Slamfire]

Roy, I thought everybody from Baltimore lived in Hanover. Up in the other end of the county, where it leans over between Adams and Cumberland, it ain't as bad, just them folks who work in Harrisburg.

 

[dmccarty]

SoundGuy,

Whether a tractor can be on the road is up to a given
states statutes. In NC you can drive a tractor on the
road and if it is a trailer being used for farm work
it does not have to be registered.

I would guess that most states, especially states
with a decent amount of agriculture would have these
kind of laws. Seems like Florida allowed this as well
but that was years ago.

I saw an eight wheeled MWFD JD 9000+ series tractor
towing a scraper driving on one of the main roads in
Raleigh back in December. He danged sure was not
doing Ag work! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif I THINK he was legal but
I would have to check the statue to make sure.

He really could not fit in a lane of traffic. Funny as
heck to see though! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

I have been told for years that lights, flashing or
otherwise, attract drunk drivers like moths to a light
bulb. They, the drunks not the moths, /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif focus
on the lights. If they are driving the car follows what
they are focused on and BAM, the drunk ran off the road
and hit a car sitting off to the side.

I have not heard of the different colors making a difference.
Don't know one way or the other.

I would think someone who is really tired or drunk might just
focus on the lights.

SOOOOooooo, if you have to pull off the road turn the wheels to
the right. That way if your car gets hit it moves out of traffic...
Hopefully the drunk does not hit YOU....

There was an officer in West Palm Beach, Florida, a few years
ago who did a traffic stop on I95. A drunk hit is car which then
hit the car he had pulled over. Unfortunately the officer was
between the two cars when the drunk hit the patrol vehicle.
The officer lost both of his legs...

Later...
Dan

 

[Bird]

Pete (and Dan), when part of my responsibilities included the police fleet we had quite a number of squad cars hit from behind while they were on the shoulder of the road with their emergency lights flashing; both when we had only red lights and after we went to red and blue. So I did a bit of research and found that the California Highway Patrol, along with the National Institute of Standards, had done some pretty extensive studies. But I think, Pete, that you have your colors wrong. Intoxicated and/or tired drivers tended to home in on red lights, and ignore blue, but moved away from amber lights. It's believed, though not proven, that drivers are accustomed to almost instinctively following red lights, while normally recognizing amber lights as a cautionary indication, and more or less ignoring other colors. Of course this was long enough ago that blue lights on emergency vehicles were not all that common. At any rate, after we changed all our light bars on the tops of the cars to ones that had red, blue, and white to the front, and amber only to the rear, we never had another car hit from behind during my tenure with the department.

 

[mbsil]

Additional info on the accident:

The driver claims to have fallen asleep and no charges are currently pending. The local paper had pics of the tractor and the pickup, which I will scan and post in the next few days.

He was given a full-honors fireman's funeral with hundreds in attendance.

A few interesting things I saw in the pics:

1. The PTO shaft to the PHD was bent completely in half and straightened out again. THE PTO COUPLER NEVER LET GO ON EITHER THE TRACTOR END OR THE PHD END!!!

2. The auger bit itself bent back 180 degrees where it connects to the auger differential.

Stay tuned for pics. (I'll be posting these for educational purposes only...there are no pics of the fireman and his name has not and will not be mentioned.)