Brush hog accident(s)

[bunchgrass]

I can't help but feeling you're needing to go against the general consensus here because you don't appreciate the comments and views directed towards the deceased and her family. It's way too damn easy to kill or maim someone with equipment like a tractor and mower. Add in differing conditions, conditions we don't know, and as you might say- maybe we don't judge a situation we don't have knowledge of?

I mean, I know it was said earlier, but look through this thread- it's absolutely full of mishaps and close calls. **** happens; unfortunately in this case **** was the brutal and horrific death of a woman well before her time. We all **** up, let's be thankful we're only killing animals, small appliances, and rocks.

This dude is going to live with this on his conscious for the rest of his life, I hope it doesn't kill him. This woman should still be alive, but she also should not have been sleeping in overgrown grass- no one should be. The failures of society hold far more responsibility than the operator of that tractor, but what are you going to do, scold a politician?

I'm ranting at this point, but how can I not? This is one terrible story, no matter the angle you look at it.

I don't recall anyone claiming to have run over something even close to the size of a human body. Did I miss something?

 

[big bubba]

I feel the same way, especially when you pass them in a motorhome.

I live on a dirt road which used to have about five cars max each day (including mine). That recently has changed and the way some of these kids drive down it makes me want to dump out a bucket of golf balls next to the road and mow them over.

slightly off topic but on the same subject of safety & roads: i travel dirt roads to my pace in the Ozark mts. the high performance atv's now days are not utility but high speed rec. race around the blind curves. like the homeowner mowers along highways, these guys race around with reckless abandon....
then add that to the sheer size of today's full size pickups, & ....an accident in the making. i drive defensively & slow, take the wide swing around blind curves. regards

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

There was a pic .... and it's CALIFORNIA in the summer. Nothing even close to that. And you would be able to see a path through that stuff you took pics of. People can't brush bust and not leave some sort of indication they've been through there. Even deer leave trails.

They don't have grass or weeds in California?

Since when?

Can someone in California confirm this?

Have you lived in N. Idaho long?

 

[lilranch2001]

Come on dude don't be so judgy. You have of the no idea of the circumstances. Homeless people are rarely the responsibility of their family. They more often than not have refused family help due to their mental issues. We have thousands of veterans and other folks from great families on the streets because families have only so much they can do legally to get a homeless person off the street. Please keep an open mind and stop assuming the worst of people.

Why? The family got “judgy” mighty quickly!

What’s good for the goose as they say is good for the gander!

 

[milkman636]

I don't recall anyone claiming to have run over something even close to the size of a human body. Did I miss something?

One of neighbor just left, she's a full-grown woman that stands at 4'11" and 98 lbs. Her niece was with her, and she may be 5'1" and around 10 lbs. heavier. Either one could lay down in the weeds and hide pretty well.

 

[Jstpssng]

I don't recall anyone claiming to have run over something even close to the size of a human body. Did I miss something?

Several people have told about running over deer.

 

[bunchgrass]

Several people have told about running over deer.

From what I read, they found them by using their FEL set low before they ran over them. Really hard to imagine driving my tractor over the top of a live deer and it still being there to get hit by the mower behind me. And my tractor sits pretty high.

 

[Fixastuff]

From what I read, they found them by using their FEL set low before they ran over them. Really hard to imagine driving my tractor over the top of a live deer and it still being there to get hit by the mower behind me. And my tractor sits pretty high.

You have a bad imagination! Lol.

 

[bunchgrass]

You have a bad imagination! Lol.

Thirty years doing this and never even came close and no one I know who's lived here even longer than that has ever mentioned that either. And we have plenty of deer. Fawns get skewered by the swather every year.

 

[mjonesnh]

From what I read, they found them by using their FEL set low before they ran over them. Really hard to imagine driving my tractor over the top of a live deer and it still being there to get hit by the mower behind me. And my tractor sits pretty high.

It does happen. Happened to me. Fawn in 5 ft tall grass. Had no idea anything was in grass till that ugly thud from mower. Looked back and deer parts spitting out from rear of mower.

 

[bunchgrass]

It does happen. Happened to me. Fawn in 5 ft tall grass. Had no idea anything was in grass till that ugly thud from mower. Looked back and deer parts spitting out from rear of mower.

A 5 pound fawn not a 100# adult. They sit tight. Worse when you're using a self-propelled swather with cutters in front and you hit one. The reel then picks them off the cutter and tosses them right up so you can see the carnage. Terrible.

 

[mjonesnh]

A 5 pound fawn not a 100# adult. They sit tight. Worse when you're using a self-propelled swather with cutters in front and you hit one. The reel then picks them off the cutter and tosses them right up so you can see the carnage. Terrible.

Not a 5 pound fawn. This happened in late September so probably 30-40 lbs. or more. Know people in area that have chopped bigger animals than that

 

[IndyJay]

From what I read, they found them by using their FEL set low before they ran over them. Really hard to imagine driving my tractor over the top of a live deer and it still being there to get hit by the mower behind me. And my tractor sits pretty high.

It depends on whether the deer had just shot up an 8 ball of herion laced with fentynal.

 

[Too many Kubotas]

 

[lilranch2001]

I haven’t been on tractorbynet for quite a while, and now I remember why I left……

There are just some people that have to argue, no matter what the topic and whether they’re right or wrong or could possibly be right or possibly be wrong

 

[tacticalturnip]

I don't recall anyone claiming to have run over something even close to the size of a human body. Did I miss something?

A human body can be quite small.

 

[tacticalturnip]

"but she also should not have been sleeping in overgrown grass- no one should be." WHAT? I thought we were all about freedom.

 

[Striker70]

Oh the things that go through a rotary cutter......Tree stumps are the usual things. This year alone I started the season off cutting tractor high wheat/rye from the past winter food plots and the field had a few groundhog dens in it. Rough to hit one of these and the tool box broke loose from the back of the tractor....a 50 cal ammo box that had been on there for 5 years, and it made a pass through the cutter. Cutter was fine, box destroyed but tools in the box all landed only a few feet away and in two different piles. Had to use the "red wrench"to get the bottom of the can open. Then just today I dodged a bullet while checking a lot I cut on the way to my hunting land. It is a 70 acre plot that is behind a grave yard and they maintain the graveyard themselves but there is a triangle piece of land just past the cemetery that borders on the highway running back to the gate entering my land. As a "good neighbor policy" when I am cutting my land I also cut the triangle too to make the graveyard look symetrical and it only takes me a few minutes. Well today I was removing some flowers that had blown from the cemetery in a storm onto my property and placing them back on the property line. As I was checking this a piece of thin metal fence post, actually 4 pieces, was seen in the grass. Now for the luck part.....there was 100 feet of 1/4 inch metal wire cable strung through it and along the ground. Glad I caught that before it wrapped around the brush hog and I spent the rest of my life removing that mess. I now have 100 feet of wire cable and the posts will be used to stabilize some timbers for a water table with the ends off the trail.

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

View attachment 812761

Omg. That was horrible. Funny. But horrible.

 

[GinNB]

From what I read, they found them by using their FEL set low before they ran over them. Really hard to imagine driving my tractor over the top of a live deer and it still being there to get hit by the mower behind me. And my tractor sits pretty high.

I'd be careful running with the loader down low when bushhogging. I've tried that trick in thick weeds and found a stump that bent me WAY over the steering wheel when standing on an open station tractor to see better. I don't want to hit stumps or whatever but I'd much rather have a repair bill than run myself over with the mower after being thrown from the tractor. Running with the bucket low-ish and tilted up is a better solution than blade straight and level.

As for the original post, it's really easy to hit things you don't see in heavy weeds and next to impossible to scout every square inch by foot beforehand. The use of the term "lawnmower" confuses people, especially since the article showed the nicely manicured lawns of the park but not the tall weeds mentioned in the text of the article. The "lawnmower" was likely a farm tractor. I commonly mow dense weeds 3-4 feet tall and sometimes brush higher than the tractor. My tractors could easily run over someone and I'd never notice the difference between that or a rock, stump, or other commonly ignored obstruction while mowing. Plus, some mowers are wider than the tractor itself. Picture the big batwing mowers used on highways. It's a tragedy but likely only avoidable by the victim herself. I'd expect most people to be awakened well before being run over unless they were under the influence or, possibly, they were sleeping where the first pass was taking place and woke in a daze.