Safety Tips

JohnMiller3 · Feb 8, 2003

Re: Safety Tips - No Extra Riders...Please...!

Tractor Accidents
The accident files of the Occupational Safety and Health Service (OSH) contain numerous photos of farm tractor accidents over the past 20 years - and behind every fading picture is a story of human tragedy…

Accidents continue to happen…

Four people died in this accident - A mother and her three children.

Why do people still insist on letting their precious children ride on their lap or the fender of a tractor…?

In your car, you wouldn’t think of driving down the freeway @ 75 mph with a child sitting in your lap, helping you steer… they’d arrest you, put you in jail, and throw away the key…

So why do it with a more dangerous vehicle like a riding lawn mower or compact tractor…?

Please don’t take your children for a tractor ride…
Folks… it’s not fun… it’s just plain stupid and asinine…/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

Bird · Feb 9, 2003

Re: Safety Tips - No Extra Riders...Please...!

( In your car, you wouldn’t think of driving down the freeway @ 75 mph with a child sitting in your lap )

Before the days of mandatory seat belts, child car seats, etc., you'd be amazed at the number of people I've seen driving with a baby sitting or standing in their lap. I always stopped them for a brief visit, knowing that there was nothing legally I could do, and that it they told me to get lost, all I could do was get back in my squad car and drive off. I guess I was just lucky, but every one of them was polite and said they just hadn't thought about the consequences.

Darren · Feb 9, 2003

I\'ve never folded the ROPS on the Kubota.

I've run into situations where I've come up against limbs that were lower than the ROPS and had to be lifted up to allow the ROPS to clear. These can be a threat when one lets go and whips one way or the other.

The solution in one case was to spend the time removing all the branches around the periphery of a pasture that were lower than the ROPS. If you look at a dozer equipped with a forestry package, it has the cage with the heavy screens and the risers. Still I've read stories of operators getting speared by limbs going through the screens.

It just points out that even the highest level of safety equipment won't protect an unwary operator in all circumstances.

patrickg · Feb 10, 2003

John, Good safety post. About 1/2 second reaction time vs 3/4 second to turn tractor over. Even if your "startle reflex" didn't paralyze you and you reacted in 1/2 second to a 3/4 second rollover, most likely you would pass the "point of no return" and roll over from momemtum. I saw a guy pulled from under his "old" tractor, pre-ROPS mandatory, after trying to back it off of his trailer at a tractor repair shop. In his haste/distracted state he missed one chain to the drawbar. When the tractor couldn't go back any further it rotated about the rear axle, flipped over and pined the driver to the ground with the steering wheel. He left in an ambulance on a back board with a cervical collar. He was breathing when he left but I don't know his outcome.

Ever read the stats on which jobs are how dangerous? Farming/ranching is nearly as dangerous a profession as they list. Probably THE most dangerous widely practiced.

Patrick

patrickg · Feb 10, 2003

Re: I\'ve never folded the ROPS on the Kubota.

Darren, I am slowly working toward a goal of removing all the limbs from trees that are obstructions to navigation for my tractor. I broke a side window out of my cab last year when a bent back limb slapped it. I have a crease in my fiberglass roof of the cab and a limb pulled a wire out of one of my rear lights.

Besides, the place looks much much better with the low branches removed.

Patrick

Youare · Feb 10, 2003

Re: Safety Tips - No Extra Riders...Please...!

My youngest son worked for a local farmer haying for the past five seasons, he started when he was 16. This past summer the farmer told to hop on the tractor fender and ride down to the barn instead of walking like he had intended.

They hit a bump and my son's foot contacted the front of the rear tire which pulled it between the tire and fender. The force riped the back of his heavy work boot apart and started chewing into his heal before he pulled it free.

The back of his foot looked really ugly and was very sore for almost a month. The farmer's only responce was, what did you do that for that was pretty stupid. That was the last day he worked for this guy.

It just goes to show that some old timers forget how dangerous farm equipment can be and not only do dumb things themselves but teach the younger generation to make the same mistakes.

As gruesome as some of thee articles and accidents are I am glad you post them for all to see. Maybe we can learn for the mistakes of others and not have to learn by making them ourselves.

Randy

JohnMiller3 · Feb 22, 2003

Re: Safety Tips- In a blink of an eye you are DEAD

“Don't gamble.
 A tractor cannot turn over by itself. It only does what you - the operator -command it to do. 

Many overturns are related to using bush hog mowers, because we tend to place the tractor in precarious situations attempting to cut all offending vegetation. Tractors must obey the laws of physics. When you try to cheat on those laws, you lose!...”

“Almost all overturns can be prevented by safe operating practices…”

“Tractor overturns occur too fast for you to jump clear in most cases...”

238294-Tractor%20Overturn%20split%20second.jpg

“Unless you are expecting the tractor to flip, your reaction time probably will be even longer (you have a problem if you are expecting it to flip)…”

“Proper ballasting maintains proper balance for stability and control…”

“Additional front-end weights are needed when using heavy 3-point hitch mounted cultivators, mowers or other heavy implements and when moving round bales of hay. You are not in control of the tractor if the front wheels lift from the ground when engaging the clutch or starting up slopes or if the front wheels slide when attempting turns….”

“Many overturns occur on relatively flat ground…”

PREVENTING and SURVIVING TRACTOR OVERTURNS
(PDF file)
(Download this, print it out... anyone that uses your tractor... require mandatory reading... it WILL save their life!)

Please don’t end up being foolish DEAD… by not following proper safety procedures… Be smart and stay ALIVE… with Safety…

MossRoad · Feb 22, 2003

Re: Safety Tips- In a blink of an eye you are DEAD

Good reading, John. I like the part where it says "a slope is too steep for safe operation if you can't back up it." Good advice.

Soundguy · Feb 25, 2003

Re: Safety Tips- In a blink of an eye you are DEAD

I think that was a great safety message in general.. but I do have one question....

Unless you are using a peice of chain for a toplink / and / or using a drawbar mower.... I would think the standard run of the mill 3pt mower would tend to act as a stabilizer.. or a wheelie bar per se...... Other opitions on this....

Soundguy

MossRoad · Feb 25, 2003

Re: Safety Tips- In a blink of an eye you are DEAD

I think my 3pt hitch brush hog has a piece of chain in the top link for flexibility and the A frame is just bolts running through the sides. If the tractor were to wheelie, the brush hog would not stop it(at least mine wouldn't).