Mulcher kills sleeping man

[slowzuki]

I've mowed some fawns before with my disc mower. I watch every square foot of grass going into the mower but you just don't see everything.

 

[leveled]

any chance this guy could have been dead in that field? Pretty hard to do an autopsy now.

 

[Jaylegger]

Here's a photo of the area and the mulcher involved.

 

[dmccarty]

he Farmington Daily Times says machine operator Chasen Kelley told detectives he stopped the wood mulching machine when he saw clothing and other debris flying out of the machine.

:shocked:

In heavy thick brush/grass you ain't gonna see squat. I almost ran over a fawn when I worked on a fawn. Did not see it until the fawn jumped up and ran. It was lucky that it hit my front tire, bounced off and ran away. On that farm I used to stand up when I mowed to try to see the $%^&*( gopher dug tractor traps. No ROPS or seat belts back then. Very seldom could I see and react in time to the Gopher dug tractor traps but at least I was standing and could more easily bounce along.

Later,
Dan

 

[Mace Canute]

The Farmington Daily Times says machine operator Chasen Kelley told detectives he stopped the wood mulching machine when he saw clothing and other debris flying out of the machine.

Major ewww factor there. Accidents like that happen every now and then. It is very traumatic to the operators...if it isn't, I would suspect there's something a tad off with their psyche. A few years back a Line crew was putting in a temporary take-off pole to feed an underground primary power line. It was rocky going and they had backhoed out the trench and were digging a hole in the trench for the pole with a radial arm digger. The operator got off the machine and went around the other side for some reason and when he came back, he got back up to the controls and started to dig again...until clothes and stuff started to come up with the auger. Turns out a young labourer had jumped down into the hole to try to dig out a rock by hand, after he had been given specific instructions to not jump into the trench and hole. The operator couldn't see him and set the auger down on top of him. They figured the kid was just trying hard to show he was a good worker and that he must have been bent over trying to get a grip on the rock. He was 18 and it was his first week on the job. The whole crew had to have counseling and the operator couldn't bring himself to run the digger after. It really f**ked him up.

 

[JB4310]

any chance this guy could have been dead in that field?

Exactly what I was thinking, and what the operator should tell himself if he starts feeling guilty.

JB.

 

[dmccarty]

Not quite as gruesome as the mulcher hitting the sleeping/dead man....

After Hurricane Fran hit our area the number of trees that were blown down was unreal. We still have trees rotting in the woods from that storm. There was a crew cleaning up downed trees. They were cutting the trees from the stumps so at least the logs could be hauled off. One of the workers had to, as my kids would say, "Take A Poo", and squatted down in the hole left from a big tree that had fallen.

The bulldozer hit the stump/root ball which promptly fell back into its hole. The operator did not know the guy was in the hole doing his business.

They noticed the guy was missing but it took awhile for them to figure out he had been in the hole.... He was dead by the time they found him.

Later,
Dan

 

[wvpolekat]

any chance this guy could have been dead in that field? Pretty hard to do an autopsy now.

My money is on this as well. Between the noise and vibration you would have to be in a coma to not wake up.

 

[Ford tractor]

I thought this was an old article from Seattle. Seem to recall the same thing happening to a highway crew cutting the right of way along Hwy 5 a few years back. Guy ran over a sleeper in the black berries. Bums / druggies / homeless sleep in the berry patches to keep from getting killed by the gangs and hassled by the police. I sure wouldn't want to live with that on my conscience - even knowing it was near impossible to avoid it would still tear a guy up inside.

 

[jamesn]

in larado tx, doing seismac mulching, we run into dead bodies all the time, illegals comming from mexico, getting bitten by snakes, or dehydration. it is hard to see somebody laying down