Farmer killed on road

PineRidge · Oct 24, 2003

People in general drive with their heads in the ozone. What can you expect with a cell phone in one ear and a cheeseburger in the other hand? 3 times in the past 5 years while on my tractor I have been turning into my drive from the main road with both turn signals and arm outstreched for a left turn only to have a car pass me in mid-turn. I must have a good guardian angel cause it was real close more than once. I now pull completely off to the side of the road and come to a full stop. Check both ways and when the coast is clear I make the cut. Better be safe than sorry is my new motto. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

chim · Oct 25, 2003

"I've never heard of the power company getting sued because of all those immobile objects they put in the ground every couple hundred feet." 

There's a pretty good example of this near my place.............chim

hockeyhead · Oct 25, 2003

We had that problem a few years back with wiped out mailboxes. when I called the police they told me I had to have a break-away post. There are only 7 homes on our road about 3 miles long un-paved. It was kids running them down and I'm the first house on the road. After replacing it twice the third time I got a 5 gal pail and a 3" square tubing post cemented the tubing into the bucket, buried the bucket only and mounted a cheapo mailbox on top. Sure enough within a month there was an older ford pickup in my ditch with my mailbox wedged under the right front end. That bucket popped out of the ground and got hung up in the front supension and stopped that truck. Of course after contacting the law and finding the owner he swore it was an accident and how sorry he was, so nothing else happened, I just got my mailbox back I had to straighten out the top flange where the box mounts, put a new mailbox on top, buried it again , a little white paint, and nobody on my street has had a problem since. It stands to this day. a break-away mailbox

5030 · Oct 25, 2003

I'd keep the owners name an address around for future reference. I know how "good and efficient" the Monroe County Sherriffs office is. /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

Mrwurm · Oct 25, 2003

PineRidge, I thought I was the only one that experienced that. I turn left off a state highway to my road everyday. Every now and then someone will pass me on the left as I am starting my left turn. They are usually going about 60 mph. One driver actually locked up his brakes when he realized what he was doing and spun around a few times. I was really dissappointed when he did not end up in the ditch.
Also, the shoulder of the road is used for high-speed passing by most everyone. I think I am the only one in the county that does'nt pass on the shoulder when someone is waiting to turn left. This gets really interesting when two cars from opposite directions are both waiting to turn left but cannot because of the fools using the shoulder to pass.

Mrwurm · Oct 25, 2003

Hockeyhead, I use a similiar design. I have my post mounted to a whiskey barrel that is filled with rocks. It's been knocked over twice. I just stand it back up and put the rocks back in.

Junkman · Oct 25, 2003

I can't drink that much whiskey!!!!!! /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

dieselsmoke1 · Oct 25, 2003

There's a retired fella in our community that has another solution. He drove a 2" pipe with indexing bolts near the bottom in the ground and mounted his mailbox on a hoe handle. He strolls out about mid morning and drops the hoe handle in the pipe, then retrieves it and the mail in the afternoon.

Mrwurm · Oct 25, 2003

Good question Bob. At election time, we have folks who will put their hand out and stop cars as they enter the parking lot of the township hall where we cast our votes. It amazes me that I have to wait in a traffic backup as each car is stopped and "politicalized" by someone with a preference. I think I am the ONLY one I have ever seen that simply drives by and does'nt even look at them.

Junkman · Oct 25, 2003

I just give them the universal sign of disaproval....... thumb down!!!!!!!! Nothing bothers me more than a pushy politician..... are there any other kind???? /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

Taylortractornut · Oct 25, 2003

Many road workers and farmers can hold a stop sign if they have equipment or live stok in the road. We had to get studied up on that when i worked for my older brother construction company. Even though I was an operator we were cross trained to flag and such. Theres no telling how many folks get run over here every year. I had an uncle 7 years ago that was driving his 8N down the road with an escort. THe escort was 150 feet behind and was struck by a man on a car phone. It catapulted the escort truck into myncles tractor and flipped it over on him. He stopped breathing but was revived a few minutes later. I was putting in a culvert in Colbert county Alabama on the side of the highway and had a laborer that put a large dirt clump on the barricade barrel top and had set his tool box up on one. Some lady in a Lexus was late for a meeting and passed a low boy hauling a D8 on the shoulder. The truck had most of the west bound lanes. She just whipped though hit the barrels. It injured 2 of my workers from flying tools and the dirt clod disentegrated my air conditioned cab.
As for the immovabale mail boxed some folks here get a break away box and put sharpened anhle iron on the bottoms of the posts to disembowel the tires of box bashers.

Slamfire · Oct 25, 2003

In my driver safety course, taken to avoid being credited with a moving violation, the instructor, a CHP officer, said that legal signs are enforceable, on private property, like parking lots. Wow that one ran on, and on, didn't it? /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

Junkman · Oct 25, 2003

But the question remains .... what is legal? If I just put up a sign, does it have a legal standing or do I have to get permission from some governmental jurisdiction. I know that here in CT, the signs have to be approved by the state before they can be termed legal. Otherwise they don't have any right to ticket you for dis obeying it....

Trev · Oct 26, 2003

( Many road workers and farmers can hold a stop sign if they have equipment or live stock in the road.)

Makes one think that there is a good reason contruction crews put big flashing signs a half mile back saying "Road Work Ahead" or "Be Prepared to Stop", and so on. Flashing lights help too, I'm fairly sure. When I take my tractor on the road, it looks like an accident scene.. headlights, flashers, revolving emergency light on top of the ROPS, etc. The neighbor's kid once told me his mother thought she saw a UFO in the apple orchard the previous night.. of course it was just me testing out my lights!

Nothing the poor guy moving his cows across the road could have done, I suppose, unless he had a team of people working with him. Maybe have his tractor or truck there with emergency lights on it so people like this woman *might* have noticed.

Sometimes around here they don't even use a stop sign, they just hold up their hand. At least they tend to do these things during daylight so a sober, competent driver has lots of time to see and react.

Thanks for the info.. sound like laws vary on this a bit from region to region.. but I'm pretty sure I can't just put up a stop sign and not find myself in court in short order. Maybe farmers around here are exempt, but I've never seen them do it.. they just hold up their hands.. or rely on the fact that it's *obvious* that they're blocking the road. Might not have worked with the woman noted at the start of this thread. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

Best,
Bob

Slamfire · Oct 26, 2003

The way your brain is wired, you can't ignore a light that flashes four times a second. Whether that would have helped this guy or not, I can't imagine. She might have fixed on the light and hit him anyway.

BWa · Oct 26, 2003

Well I know for a fact .that my neighbor and my BIL , "found " /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif a stop sign and nailed it to a telephone pole at just over 6' up at the end of our city road ,,,,, were there has never been an offical stop sign ,,, It has been up now for 15 years plus and is to the point when the city came around replacing old signs they replaced it , even nailing back on the pole .. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif.but this is Massachusetts your state may be different ...
bill g.

Junkman · Oct 26, 2003

Many towns put up stop signs and other traffic control signs and just don't worry about the legality of the sign until there is a problem such as an accident as a result of the sign or someone challenges a ticket for not obeying the sign. If they check with the state and find out that the sign is not properly placed, then the ticket goes away and the sign goes away also. For this reason, many times you will see a traffic signal be erected and then covered over for a few weeks or even months..... they are waiting for the final approval of the state before putting it into operation. I know this because I used to live in MA and know people in town government. I asked the question why a traffic light wasn't working after being installed...

Trev · Oct 27, 2003

( The way your brain is wired, you can't ignore a light that flashes four times a second. Whether that would have helped this guy or not, I can't imagine. She might have fixed on the light and hit him anyway. )

I've heard that a lot of cop cars parked beside the road with lights flashing (perhaps while giving out a ticket) get rear ended for that very reason.. people tend to steer toward where they are looking. Don't know if this is true.. any of you law enforecement folks out there had problems with this?

We live on the intersection of a road with no speed limit marked.. meaning it defaults to the state limit of 55. Our driveway is just before the intersection, and more than once we've almost gotten killed trying to turn into our own driveway. I am tempted to write the town and request a three-way stop sign for that intersection. Doubt they'll give it to me, but it can't hurt to ask!

If anyone tries to hit our mailbox, they'll end up in a 5-6 foot deep ditch, so our mailbox is safe from everything except me on my tractor. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif The one time I was too lazy to hook rear weight while plowing snow, I ended up messing up the box in my efforts to extract myself. Sigh.

Bob

Soundguy · Oct 27, 2003

Same areound here... no imoveable objects in the r/w... except power poles.. etc.

And code enforcement officers will write you up for re-inforced mailbox poles... though I have seen many get away with reinforced mailboxes.. on 'breakaway' poles.

For instance.. where we used to live.. kids loved to driveby and hit mailboxes with baseball bats.

A guy just welded up a 6" pipe casing with a hinge and door, and addet it to the top of a regular mailbox / paperbox green t-post. The t-post has enough spring and give to bounce back after the attatck, and the pipe casing is structural enough to survive the louisville slugger.... best of both worlds i guess.
Though t-post would shear off in an instant it it got hit by a car.. etc..

Soundguy