Trajedy at Farm Show

[Dutch445]

the Empire Farm Days show in upstate NY is a fairly large show
for the Northeast, every year in August. They say up to 65K
people visit each year.

Today was the last day of this years show and it ended on
a very sad note. There was an accident with one of the vendors,
a piece of machinery injured an 8yr old child. Very sad, hope
he is ok, last report was he was in critical condition.
Thoughts are with the child and his family.... and with the vendor.

Boy crushed by cow hoof trimming machine at Empire Farm Days in critical condition | syracuse.com

 

[Sysop]

I don't think a farm machinery accident is a freak occurrence. It happens WAY too often (all accidents happen way too often, humans are fairly accident prone)...

Prayers for the child, family, and the operator. Very saddening...

 

[TomSeller]

Very sad. Let us know if you find out how he is doing.

 

[texasjohn]

Sad happening.

Unfortunately, terrible events can happen any time, anywhere that there is a momentary loss of focus. Recently, a local minister was shot and killed by his son-in-law at a local gun show.

Victim in deadly shooting at Cedar Park gun show identified | www.statesman.com

 

[jerrybob]

Hope the young boy is OK but sadly.....accidents do occur. A few years back.....we were at a county fair and a little girl was kicked and killed by a horse. Tragic event.......very sad but you can't prevent everything that might happen.

 

[FTG-05]

A couple years ago, a small boy was killed at an air show when a wind storm came up and knocked an air conditioning unit on top of him. The sad thing is, he was taking refuge from the wind storm beside the AC unit.

 

[Cord]

Sadly, I smell a lawsuit. Sometimes the parents aren't gold diggers, but the bills really do stack up. It's scary to think of how exposed your flank really is today.

 

[MoKelly]

Sadly, I smell a lawsuit. Sometimes the parents aren't gold diggers, but the bills really do stack up. It's scary to think of how exposed your flank really is today.

Yes, and why you really need insurance. It is essential.

MoKelly

 

[k0ua]

Yes, and why you really need insurance. It is essential.

MoKelly

I sure wish more people believed that. I have a heck of a time convincing people that they need insurance.

 

[JasG]

I go to this show every year and have since I was a kid. One thing I have noticed over the years is parents seem to turn there kids loose. I was there on Wed and was in the Deere display area, 3 boys the oldest might have been 10, youngest I would say 5-6 maybe, running around from machine to machine climbing on jumping off. No one in sight that looked like there parent. Other kids walking around by themselves in other areas. On one hand it's great that people feel safe enough that they don't worry about the kids getting grabbed. On the other, this is really no place to let young kids run around. Machines moving out to the demo area and back, large machinery all over.

At some point the parents need to be a parent and not lose track of their kids. I was lucky, my dad drilled safety into my head as far back as I can remember.

Boy is doing better.

Boy recovering from injuries suffered in accident at Empire Farm Days - Finger Lakes Times: News

 

[nybirdman]

This young lad's parent's farm is not far from me.Very sad case for sure.
My son attended this show and was shocked that there were no barricades/safety tape anywhere at this show.Vendors operating all kinds of equiptment with people standing very close.
I would hope this will change in the future.

 

[JasG]

This young lad's parent's farm is not far from me.Very sad case for sure.
My son attended this show and was shocked that there were no barricades/safety tape anywhere at this show.Vendors operating all kinds of equiptment with people standing very close.
I would hope this will change in the future.

Yes there are, just not at each and every machine. I would say most of the machinery actually running is roped off. In many cases the rope/tape is very close to the machine, mostly just a few feet away.

At the tractor/machinery reps, if the machine is just sitting there with no covers open not running, then no, but I have never seen that stuff run. Where the forest equipment/hay and forage machinery is demoed all were roped off I saw this year. Many of the dealers do have parts of a machine open and some you can walk up to, others are taped off. Milton Caterpillar had a nice demo area with limited access and taped off, so did Honda among others. Usually machinery being moved to and from the demo area has spotters. Although I did see a New Holland SPFH moving out to the demo area and didn't see any spotters but that if there weren't any is a rare case.

The hay and forage area, they have a rope and people to make sure no one crosses the rope.

Some problems I also see is people rope off the front of their display area. Yet people cut through from the back from a display on another lane. Again kids running around without parent.

Just from what I see, I think each dealer is supposed to police themselves. Most are very safe, boom locks in place on raised machinery, ladders roped off etc. Some as we know could have done more.

This video was from 2013 and in the 1st couple seconds you can see the rope and spotters in the forage demo area. This happens every year the same way.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoViXxQdkEs

This is from a few years ago and a small bandmill, without roping. Like I said, I think they police themselves. The same machine after the demo you can walk right up to and see everything. I usually look at this stuff every year, this year while running the forestry machines I looked at were roped off.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beBw6OHQ1wk

 

[Capricious]

"...I have a heck of a time convincing people that they need insurance...."

I essentially "self-insure" when it comes to losses that i can quantify. For example, I have realitively high deductibles on auto collision coverage (if i have that at all) and on structures (house, garage), so most smaller losses would/will/do come out of my pocket. I especially want to avoid filing claims on structures that would end up on a CLUE report; What is a CLUE report

I would look to insurance coverage only on a major loss.

When it comes to liability, however, I go heavy on the coverage, with a liability umbrella policy. I also carry liability coverage on some vacant rural land that I own- with no structures of any kind on it, not even fences, many would consider the potential for a liability issue to be small.

Those operating businesses would do well to ( and usually do) make good use of corporations or LLC's , and to maintain the proper paperwork to ensure these entities are not penetrated in court. Corps and LLC's, however, should NOT be seen as an alternative to adequate liability coverage, although they often are used as such. One has a moral obligation, if not a legal obligation, to compensate those who suffer damages due to one's actions/inactions.

 

[k0ua]

I don't sell Property and Casualty insurance, I am all about Life, health and senior products. But the analogue to the CLUE report on my side of the house is the MIB.

No, it is not Men in Black. But the Medical Insurance Bureau.

mib.com - Home

 

[chad22]

Glad to hear the boy is doing better now. That sad that he got crushed by the machine though.

Chad

 

[tcreeley]

As a society we need to stop suing to get money. Somethings are just unfortunate, and we should live with those regardless.

 

[Capricious]

As a society we need to stop suing to get money. Somethings are just unfortunate, and we should live with those regardless.

I don't know if I totally agree. If I were to do harm, physically or financially, to another due to my actions I would feel it an obligation to compensate that person. Likewise, if another harmed me, I would expect compensation.

However, I agree that a sense of "reasonableness" seems to have been lost in today's litigous society.

Here is an example where Deere was sued in 1999, for an accident involving a 4020 manufactured in 1964 and with a loader manufactured in 1972:

01-3335 -- Hiner v. Deere and Co. Inc. -- 08/20/2003

Deere won, as they should have, in my opinon, but the lawsuit should never have been filed.

 

[k0ua]

As a society we need to stop suing to get money. Somethings are just unfortunate, and we should live with those regardless.

In general I agree with you. There are times for lawsuits, but they should be few and far between and the negligence should have been egregious.

 

[JasG]

We may be getting ahead of ourselves with talk of a lawsuit, hopefully it doesn't have to come to that.

A friend of mine's brother was/is being sued for his dog biting a 6 year old kid. He paid all of the kids medical, and the kids was my understanding trespassing on the dog owners land. The kid is now 21 and suing for pain and suffering.

IMO all suits should go before a set of judges before it can move forward to see if you even have a case. Then loser pays for all the bills of the winner. So if you bring suit and lose, you pay the guys legal bills for suing. Right now you have nothing to lose with lawyer not charging unless you win.

 

[k0ua]

We may be getting ahead of ourselves with talk of a lawsuit, hopefully it doesn't have to come to that.

A friend of mine's brother was/is being sued for his dog biting a 6 year old kid. He paid all of the kids medical, and the kids was my understanding trespassing on the dog owners land. The kid is now 21 and suing for pain and suffering.

IMO all suits should go before a set of judges before it can move forward to see if you even have a case. Then loser pays for all the bills of the winner. So if you bring suit and lose, you pay the guys legal bills for suing. Right now you have nothing to lose with lawyer not charging unless you win.

I agree, you should be sure of your grievance before you sue. You should be "punished" financially if you lose, by paying all costs involved. Suits should be because a severe wrong has been done to you.