Tractor spear strikes, kills truck passenger

[Champy]

FYI - Not all tractor accidents kill or injure the operator......this one is pretty ugly if you imagine being the passenger...


State | IndyStar.com

The Associated Press
June 22, 2007 1:00 AM
A spear on a piece of farm equipment struck a man in the head as the pickup truck in which he was riding drove past, fatally injuring the passenger, police said.

The driver of a tractor was slowly entering a road from a private drive Thursday when a bale spear, which is used to pick up items such as hay, on the tractor's front hit the truck. The spear, which is about 4 feet off the ground, crashed through the truck's passenger side, striking Willard Moore, 33, of Franklin in the head, police Lt. Bruce Barnes said.

Moore was pronounced dead a short time later at Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis, Barnes said.

Neither of the drivers was injured, and Barnes said the tractor driver could not see approaching traffic because of a line of trees along the road in a suburban area north of Indianapolis. No charges or tickets were immediately issued.

"It was just a freakish accident," Barnes said.

 

[Renze]

Keep forks, spikes or anything poorly visible, out of the normal human height± that´s either lower than a foot so things can hump over it, or as high as possible so cars and motorcycles go underneath it.

Last year a horse riding game my brother and father were supposed to go, was cancelled due to a freak accident the day before. A member of the riding club organising that event, drove his tractor off the terrain at the end of the day before, they had been using the tractor to move materials for the event.
when the operator drove off the field, there was a moped (most boys tune them so they run 90 instead of 50 km/h) approaching at high speed, that couldnt avoid the loader bucket at 4 feet high, even though the tractor driver tried to lift the loader quickly to avoid the boy on the moped, off course this wasnt quick enough, the boy on the moped slammed his head agains the loader and was decapitated from the accident.
The organisation cancelled the event next day.

 

[mboulais]

Bale spears on tractors scare me every time I see them on the road. I am honestly surprised we don't see more of this.

 

[dgl24087]

Bale spears on tractors scare me every time I see them on the road. I am honestly surprised we don't see more of this.

I see a guy with a Kubota cab tractor driving in CITY traffic with his bale spear at about 3 ft. off the ground. Never wanted to be in front of his rig.

 

[Renze]

In Holland there is a law that parts such as bale spears, corn headers etcetera, should be covered when you hit the road. I never heard of anyone getting a ticket for not covering sharp ends, though i see uncovered silage block cutter teeth all the time. I think something serious must happen, before the police pays any attention to it.

 

[Skyco]

I guess it never occured to the spear driver to BACK into the road he couldn't see clearly

God must love stupid people-
He made so many of them....

 

[Robert_in_NY]

I guess it never occured to the spear driver to BACK into the road he couldn't see clearly

God must love stupid people-
He made so many of them....

You can't always back into the road. If you are pulling a trailer or have an implement hooked on then it is just as bad. In this case the operator should have had the spear just about touching the ground. He was stupid to pull into the road with the spear up and now has to live with that mistake.

 

[lug nut]

When I am on the road with my spear on, I put the bucket about a foot off of the ground and tilt it back so that the spear is pointed up instead of straight ahead.

 

[N80]

I feel bad for the passenger and his family. He was totally an innocent bystander. And I'd say the tractor driver is clearly at fault.

Having said that, the country road my property is on (its about 8 miles long and barely two lanes) people fly down that road like it is interstate. Speed limit is 45. Most traffic comes by at about 65. It is posted for no truck through traffic and has no shoulder, is paved but rough as a cob. There are 'tractor' warning signs on the road. Still they fly by. There are tow active farms on the road....and sometimes me on my little orange tractor

 

[Z-Michigan]

I'm not going to guess who is at fault. I will say that a local farmer who's always running around with pallet forks on his bucket keeps the forks tilted straight down when he's moving on the road. I assume this is for safety. I have no reason to operate on the road with a bale spear, but if I ever do I'll plan to have it pointing straight down.