Tractor Baler Accident

[Alan W.]

While my cousin was baling hay he started to pull the trip rope to kick the bale out.
He remembers the trip rope being close to the pto shaft and starting to push the clutch in to stop and reposition it.
His next memory is coming to on the ground, being unable to move, watching his tractor and baler going across the field.
A couple of young boys saw the tractor and baler, sans operator, going across the field and ran to tell their dad who found my cousin and called the ambulance. Tractor crashed into a tree.
He was airlifted to the hospital to find his hip was shattered, vertebrae cracked and ribs broke. They put screws and pins in his hip to hold it together and he has to wear, as he calls it, a turtle shell brace.
I went and looked at the tractor and baler today. Surprised it didn’t happen sooner.

Unshielded pto shaft.
No seat belt.
No support to keep the trip rope from the
pto shaft.

 

[Doofy]

Ouch! Prayers for a speedy recovery.

 

[kenmac]

The things I see people doing. It's amazing they have made it this long.
He's lucky.

 

[skipperbrown]

What exactly happened? Did the trip rope get caught in the pto shaft and the other end get wrapped around him pulling him off the tractor? It's **** too easy to get complacent on a tractor. Let's be safe out there. I'm glad your cousin is going to survive to tell the tale (what he can remember about it).

 

[5030]

Been bailing hay for 25 years... What is a trip rope anyway?

Nice pto shaft too. Your cousin is a real operator. Lucky to be alive.

 

[aczlan]

Been bailing hay for 25 years... What is a trip rope anyway?

Nice pto shaft too. Your cousin is a real operator. Lucky to be alive.

My guess would be that it is the rope to move the twine arm on a round baler that doesn't have a hydraulically or electrically controlled twine arm.

Aaron Z

 

[Alan W.]

He doesn’t remember exactly what happened. We assume that he had the rope wrapped around his hand. The pto grabbed hold of it and pulled him off the tractor.
The baler tire ran over him.

All I know about the rope is what he has told me. That he pulls it to make the bale and kick it out.

 

[Alan W.]

My guess would be that it is the rope to move the twine arm on a round baler that doesn't have a hydraulically or electrically controlled twine arm.

Aaron Z

Youre correct. I looked it up and the early ones had to have the twine arm moved by a rope.

 

[aczlan]

Youre correct. I looked it up and the early ones had to have the twine arm moved by a rope.

I figured when I only saw 2 hydraulic lines going to the baler (to lift/lower the tailgate).
That was an option on my round baler as well.

Aaron Z

 

[dodge man]

Half the pto shaft had a guard on it. I’m not sure a seatbelt would have helped. Glad to hear he wasn’t hurt worse. Speedy recovery hoped for on my part.

 

[shovelmike]

Saying prayers for your cousin, glad he wasn't killed.

 

[Jstpssng]

^^^^^
What he said.

 

[ovrszd]

Half the pto shaft had a guard on it. I知 not sure a seatbelt would have helped. Glad to hear he wasn稚 hurt worse. Speedy recovery hoped for on my part.

Well, depends on what the expected outcome is.... With a seatbelt it would have ripped his arm off. Probably at the shoulder. For sure at the hand.

Not condoning unsafe practices. Just remarking that with everything else wrong in this scenario a seatbelt would be far down the list.

 

[jonathco]

I hope he's thanking the good Lord; he's lucky to be alive. I'm praying he recovers quickly.

I've read far too many stories about guys getting wrapped up in PTO shafts. If I buy something without a shaft shield, I won't use it until I've put one on it. I've got 4 little ones and a good woman under my roof, who all have my last name... just not worth the risk.

Stay safe out there gents.

 

[2LaneCruzer]

I was raised a country boy, but never did a lot of haying, bucking bales was a bit too much for a little guy like me. I do have one story my Uncle told me though. He owned an auto parts store and a wrecker service in a small Oklahoma town; one day he got an emergency call to come to an accident involving a hay baler. Seems the guy had stopped and reached up in the mechanism for some reason...maybe to clear a jam or some such...in any case, the baler was still either running or winding down...there was a hook that grabbed the bailing wire, and it hooked him in the middle of his hand, and proceeded to wrap his arm around a shaft and bind him up in the wire, while removing his two middle fingers.

My Uncle said when he got there he was still wrapped up in the wire, with his arm over the shaft. He took his cutting torch and cut the shaft off, and he went to the hospital with part of the baler attached to his arm. Now that is scary, to think that a farmer would be that careless, but you never know.

 

[2LaneCruzer]

Saying prayers for your cousin, glad he wasn't killed.

Ditto here. Seems like farming accidents are like the poor; they will always be with us. I wish him a speedy recovery.

 

[ovrszd]

I was raised a country boy, but never did a lot of haying, bucking bales was a bit too much for a little guy like me. I do have one story my Uncle told me though. He owned an auto parts store and a wrecker service in a small Oklahoma town; one day he got an emergency call to come to an accident involving a hay baler. Seems the guy had stopped and reached up in the mechanism for some reason...maybe to clear a jam or some such...in any case, the baler was still either running or winding down...there was a hook that grabbed the bailing wire, and it hooked him in the middle of his hand, and proceeded to wrap his arm around a shaft and bind him up in the wire, while removing his two middle fingers.

My Uncle said when he got there he was still wrapped up in the wire, with his arm over the shaft. He took his cutting torch and cut the shaft off, and he went to the hospital with part of the baler attached to his arm. Now that is scary, to think that a farmer would be that careless, but you never know.

As a kid AC small round balers were popular around here. One of my neighbors was killed by clearing a plug with it running and it dragged him in. Another neighbor did the same thing and only survived it because the governor on his AC tractor didn't work and it killed the tractor. Watched my Dad get him out of the baler with his arm in up to his shoulder.

 

[Alan W.]

Well, depends on what the expected outcome is.... With a seatbelt it would have ripped his arm off. Probably at the shoulder. For sure at the hand.

Not condoning unsafe practices. Just remarking that with everything else wrong in this scenario a seatbelt would be far down the list.

I was thinking the same thing about his arm.

They moved him to physical therapy today to try and get him rehabbed. No word on how long that will be.

 

[Steppenwolfe]

When I was a kid you always new who the old time farmers were, they were missing fingers or a hand from old two row corn pickers.

 

[ovrszd]

When I was a kid you always new who the old time farmers were, they were missing fingers or a hand from old two row corn pickers.

I knew dozens of old farmers as a kid. Worked for most of them. Only know of one that was missing appendages from equipment and that was a sileage cutter. So all the old farmers you knew were missing body parts?