Freak Tragic bushhogging incident killed a local farmer

[Birdhunter1]

Found out more to the story from a friend of mine who was good friends with this guys family and was out there afterwards to see where it all happened. The tractor was ab out a 40-50 hp Kubota, they had one for small utility work and he was using it.
He was backing into the corner of a fence, didn't hit the fence. Somehow a sliver of wire was thrown up at him, maybe froma pto shaft, maybe some freak flying object out from under the mower, we'll never know. The guy who told me this is 50 year old farmer who's been farmin his whole life, he does not see anyway at all a piece came from under the mower to the operator because the bushhog is so close and has the front guards. He did however think the pto shaft may have caught something and flung it.

 

[tallyho8]

I was searching the web to see if I could find more info on this tragic accident. I did not find any but I found this site on Illinois tractor deaths. http://www.countryfinancial.com/pdf/financial/staticNav/news/2006/nfshw_2006FarmDeaths.pdf

The strange part is that every death in a rollover was someone over 50 and every death in a collision was someone under 50.

 

[Birdhunter1]

The accident I originally posted about.

WSIL TV • Cobden Man Dies in Farm Accident

 

[JB4310]

Even with my limited experience with pto equipment I wouldn't think a shaft turning 540 rpm's could throw something off with all that much inertia, if that's the right term.

But the fact that he was in a corner provides alot more surfaces for things to deflect/ricochet off of, as opposed to being out in the middle of a field. Just did a quick google search and see those blade tips have speeds up to 18,000 FPM, IMO the speed and weight of those blades Could produce the kind of energy to "shoot" a projectile out with such deadly force.

Washington County Tractor - Bush Hog Finish Mowers

JB.

 

[AlanB]

I am thinking along the lines that a small piece of metal came out low to the front, and hit an angled rock and deflected up.

I think the term 1 in a million or whatever kind of sums it up. Unfortunately, this man was the 1.

My condolences for the family, lets just hope his affairs are in order and he passed quick.

 

[EastTexFrank]

When we used the older tractors and mowers at the farm for bush hogging I was "beaned" more than once by thrown material. Once on the back of the head, it knocked my baseball cap off, and once on the right shoulder blade. That last one really hurt, I though it had been fractured. My wife knocked the back window out of a cabbed Massey 275. She said there was a sound like a shot and the window just shattered. There was glass lying everywhere inside the cab. I even put a hole in a rear ag tire backing into brush. So thown debris does come out with enough force to seriously injure.

I was going to go the lexan route, especially on the old JD, but a friend, who mows for a living, showed me what he had done to his tractor. He had tacked expanded metal on to the ROP behind the seat. It was fairly small mesh stuff. He said he had tried the lexan/polycarbonate but that it got so covered in dust that after a relatively short time he couldn't see through it, especially when the sun got low. Just thought I'd mention another option.

 

[N80]

The right-of-way machines usually have that expanded metal around the 'cab' area. But this guy was killed by a sliver of wire. The expanded metal would certainly reduce the odds with something that small, but not completely.

I have seen patients with wire embedded deep in their leg from a regular puch mower, but I think they go at pretty high RPMs. One of my partners had a patient who was killed when hit in the chest by a piece of wire thrown from a lawn mower. Punctured his aorta. Bled to death internally.

 

[kthompson]

I am not being crude here but when it is your time, it is your time. As was said earlier, have your affairs in order. All of them. I do believe ours and others actions can speed up our time.

It is still sad.

 

[N80]

I agree. If that tiny sliver of wire came out from under the mower, or ricochet'd off something or was thrown by the PTO and found its way into the brainstem either through the skull or up through the foramen magnum, then it was just as the title says, a freak and tragic accident. And there probably isn't a moral to the story or anything to learn or to do related to prevention. It was just time and all you can do is have your ducks in a row when its time....and that will mean different things to different people.

 

[lawn_king]

That $ucks, not much more you can say?