rmorgan
Gold Member
- Joined
- May 1, 2001
- Messages
- 335
- Location
- Summerside, OH
- Tractor
- NH TC33D; RTV900; Gravely Professional
Folks--
My next door neighbor looked across the fence last night at my FEL sitting by a tree near the barn. I put it there when I dismount it from the tractor, which I do fairly often. As others have said, it only takes a few minutes. My neighbor was reminded to tell me that this Easter weekend a 40-year-old friend of his was crushed to death. He was trying to detach the loader from a compact tractor and apparently somehow ended up with it unlatched while up in the air. He got under it and it came down on top of him. His wife and children heard him but couldn't get it off of him, and had to get help from a neighbor. He couldn't be airlifted due to weather conditions. He was taken to a rural hospital where he died on the operating table.
I can't even begin to imagine how on earth he ended up with a partially-unhooked loader bucket up in the air while trying to take it off the tractor; much less how he got underneath it in that situation. But he was, according to my neighbor, an experienced and reasonable man of rural upbringing. Whatever the chain of events (presumably never to be known precisely), I can only assume that what he was doing made sense to him at the time. The same sort of cascading events--being in a position where his wife couldn't help; having the helicopter unable to fly; ending up at a hospital without a complete trauma unit--that kept him from getting the fastest possible care surely led to the accident in the first place.
I have always taken the FEL buckets off my tractors when I don't have a use for them, and am grateful that the newer tractor designs make it so much easier--and, in my judgment, that much safer and more--to do so. Taking the loader of my NH 33 is much easier than my old Yanmar, which required inserting stands into the loader arms as part of the dismount. I will not think twice about continuing to take off the loader when I don't need it or when, in my judgment, it might interfere with other operations. But this incident is a horroble reminder of, as others have said recently on this board, how a moment can make a lifetime's difference.
No matter how often you read, hear, or consider that these machines are extraordinarily powerful with the ability to facilitate chaos in the event of operator misjudgment or mistake, nothing drives it home like these stories.
Be careful.
--Rick Morgan
My next door neighbor looked across the fence last night at my FEL sitting by a tree near the barn. I put it there when I dismount it from the tractor, which I do fairly often. As others have said, it only takes a few minutes. My neighbor was reminded to tell me that this Easter weekend a 40-year-old friend of his was crushed to death. He was trying to detach the loader from a compact tractor and apparently somehow ended up with it unlatched while up in the air. He got under it and it came down on top of him. His wife and children heard him but couldn't get it off of him, and had to get help from a neighbor. He couldn't be airlifted due to weather conditions. He was taken to a rural hospital where he died on the operating table.
I can't even begin to imagine how on earth he ended up with a partially-unhooked loader bucket up in the air while trying to take it off the tractor; much less how he got underneath it in that situation. But he was, according to my neighbor, an experienced and reasonable man of rural upbringing. Whatever the chain of events (presumably never to be known precisely), I can only assume that what he was doing made sense to him at the time. The same sort of cascading events--being in a position where his wife couldn't help; having the helicopter unable to fly; ending up at a hospital without a complete trauma unit--that kept him from getting the fastest possible care surely led to the accident in the first place.
I have always taken the FEL buckets off my tractors when I don't have a use for them, and am grateful that the newer tractor designs make it so much easier--and, in my judgment, that much safer and more--to do so. Taking the loader of my NH 33 is much easier than my old Yanmar, which required inserting stands into the loader arms as part of the dismount. I will not think twice about continuing to take off the loader when I don't need it or when, in my judgment, it might interfere with other operations. But this incident is a horroble reminder of, as others have said recently on this board, how a moment can make a lifetime's difference.
No matter how often you read, hear, or consider that these machines are extraordinarily powerful with the ability to facilitate chaos in the event of operator misjudgment or mistake, nothing drives it home like these stories.
Be careful.
--Rick Morgan
