Tractor Accident - Lets be safe

[DCS]

This is an artical from one our local newspapers


Freeport mayor itching to return

By Terry Hagerty
The Facts

Published January 29, 2007

The life-sized cardboard cutout of John Wayne and a large Superman balloon in his hospital room reflect the hardy spirit of Freeport Mayor Jim Phillips as he continues his recovery from a tractor accident on Nov. 22.

“I know when I’m going home — a week from today,” Phillips cheerily told a friend who called his room Wednesday at Brazosport Regional Health System. “I told my doctor I wanted to shoot for being out of here by Feb. 1, and he agreed.”

After spending about a month at Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston followed by almost a month at the Lake Jackson hospital, including two weeks of intensive physical therapy, Phillips said he’s ready “to get back to city work,” although he will be using a walker to get around.

The accident

Phillips suffered broken vertebrae and ribs Nov. 22 when his tractor stalled, then unexpectedly started up and knocked him to the ground, running over him twice.

“I was cutting hay on Port Freeport property,” recalled Phillips, who was working by himself in a field south of 11th Street, where highways 288 and 36 meet

“The tractor was running at about 2,200 rpm and just died,” Phillips recalled. “The engine didn’t choke down before it died, which I was thinking was real unusual. I reached into the floorboard to tap the solenoid with a screwdriver and the tractor started up in gear and just took off.”

Phillips said he was knocked to the ground and stunned by the tractor’s wheels. The tractor then circled by itself and hit him again.

“I could hear the tractor coming around the second time,” Phillips said. “I never lost consciousness, I was just stunned and immobilized. The mower’s cutter bar went between my knees and thighs on the second pass, but luckily the bar wasn’t rotating. I could hear my vertebrae breaking. I sucked up what little energy I could and rolled myself a full body turn, so the tractor missed on the third pass and then died out after about 30 minutes.”

Phillips said he tried to signal passing motorists from his prone position in the field.

“I took my handkerchief, got some nearby milkweed and wrapped it up and waved it as a signal,” Phillips said. “I had a couple of people driving the 288 Loop wave back at me.” No one realized Phillips’ predicament.

About an hour later, Phillips’ son, Wes Phillips, found him in the field, and he was flown by medical helicopter to Hermann Hospital.

Besides the broken vertebrae and ribs, Phillips said he had one collapsed lung and doctors found a blood clot in the other.

 

[nosliw]

“I had a couple of people driving the 288 Loop wave back at me.” No one realized Phillips’ predicament.

i don't know if i'm a whole lot more in-tune that normal people, but if i see a man laying on the ground out in a field waving a hanky i would at least stop on the side of the road and try and communicate with him.

unfortunate

 

[DCS]

Good point. What else would a man have to do.....shoot up flares.

 

[Harvster]

Good point. What else would a man have to do.....shoot up flares.

OOOOOH........AHHHHH......Look...... fireworks.....now wave to the nice man in the field!

 

[Cliff_Johns]

Reading this, I'm not quite sure how the restart happened. What state is the engine in that it could start on it's own without the starter motor turning it over? I am confused.

Cliff

 

[shaley]

Quote
Phillips suffered broken vertebrae and ribs Nov. 22 when his tractor stalled, then unexpectedly started up and knocked him to the ground, running over him twice.
Thats gotta hurt. I hope he recovers. If my tractor ever does something to me twice it's time to quit tractoring.

 

[dgl24087]

i don't know if i'm a whole lot more in-tune that normal people, but if i see a man laying on the ground out in a field waving a hanky i would at least stop on the side of the road and try and communicate with him.

unfortunate

Especially considering the tractor was circling in the field for 30 minutes with no one on it? Unbelievable.

 

[Champy]

“..I reached into the floorboard to tap the solenoid with a screwdriver and the tractor started up in gear and just took off.”

Well there it is.....the lesson here is to never rap your tractor's solenoid with a screwdriver........it just pisses them off and then they'll run you over 2 or 3 times just so you learn to keep your hands to yerself!

 

[jimainiac]

It would be interesting to find out what kind of tractor that was, that could start up that easily. With the multiple safety interlock switches of current tractors, it makes you think it must have been pretty old or modified. Even so, it sounds pretty odd, must be more to the story.

 

[Ford960]

I think that the real deal here is that the tractor was in gear...
The fact that it started is secondary to the accident.

I never leave my tractor or trucks in gear when I get out of the operators seat and always set the brake. My Ford is easier to start while standing beside it but I always press the gear selector down to make sure that it's not in gear. Plus the throttle is only slightly above idle.

We can all sit back and be Monday morning quarterbacks but this poor man made some serious mistakes that nearly killed him. Had the mower been engaged then the outcome would have been far different.

Rant on.
As far as the people waving back and not stopping, isn't there a "good samaritan law"?
Last year a couple from SC ran off I-95 near here and they drowned in a pond. It took the police a while to locate the scene based on a witness that was following the car and called on his cell phone to report that the car left the road. The news played the recorded 911 call but the family is irate that the police took so long to locate the vehicle.
MY QUESTION IS, WHY DIDN'T THIS SO CALLED GOOD SAMARITAN STOP AND RENDER ASSISTANCE!!!!
He just may have saved these people....I think that the family and police should be tracking this guy down and asking those questions.
Rant off.

My heartfelt condolances go out the this tractor accident victim and wish that the rest of his recovery goes well.

 

[chrisjbell]

Scary stuff. I just had the top link pin on a Woods BH9500 / Kubota M6800 snap on me today. That was some scary stuff - I was digging up a stump when the pin snapped and the backhoe assembly just flew back towards the ground.

Ironically, the ladies playing golf (I work at a golf course) just kept on going...

(I was OK and rigged a pin up to get the tractor back to the shop. I was done for the day after that...)

 

[Kendall69]

I got the %^&* scared out of me last year. I was burning a huge pile of brush on my land ( I had a fire permit to burn) and was pushing the pile tighter into the fire with the bucket. Flames were up about 20 ft. in the air and growing, as I made the next push, when the tractor stalled in the fire.

New tractor with 10 hours on it. The fire started to flare, and I only had seconds to either start it or jump clear. It started, and I flew out of the inferno - and that was the last pile I ever burned.

 

[JayDavis]

If he was tapping the solenoid, then maybe his screwdriver bridged the battery connection to the starter....effectively hot wiring the tractor...doing this probably also bypassed the clutch safety that keeps a tractor (or auto) from being started without the clutch depressed. Between the low gearing and the strong starter needed for a diesel, the initial surge that knocked him off the tractor could have been the sudden pull of the starter engaging.

The reason I mention this is when the slave cylinder on my truck went out, I could get it started by putting the truck in 1st gear and pressing the clutch (the clutch didn't work, but by pushing it, the safety would let the truck start) and turn the key. The starter would roll the truck down the road at 3-4mph until the engine caught and started to run. After that I could sync-shift and make it home...luckily there were no stops along the way.