Friend of ours got caught up in PTO shaft !!

[brin]

My Mrs. told me yesterday that a man 40 yrs.old now who used to play on the High School Baseball team with our son was drilling post holes on his tractor with his auger on the 3 pt. hitch...and apparently while on the tractor seat with the auger rotating he reached back with one arm, I am guessing to apply pressure and his sleve got caught up in the PTO shaft...

He tried to hold on to the ROPS with the other arm but it pulled him off the seat and began floppin him around and around like a rag doll...his neighbor just happened to be in his back pasture and saw what was happening and ran over and turned the tractor off... He called 911 and they took him to the hospital...

He is out of the hospital now and at home...he has gashed on his legs and his shoulder in raw meat...they are waiting to see if he will lose his sight in his left eye...

I mean , how lucky he was not killed...Remember it only takes one wrong move and a second.

 

[Mikeeemo]

Glad to hear he survived, I will pray for him and his family.

Be careful, everybody, usually "one and out" with a PTO shaft.

 

[beppington]

That's gruesome, but good to hear stories like that as my dad & I have been augering many post holes for my fence over the past year or so. We're done with 2,665' & working on the last 750' now. That'll be about 440 post holes total ... about 30 to go right now :thumbsup:

We, probably foolishly, used to use our human weight help the auger drill.

Now the new 6" auger bit I got at Tractor Supply drills so well, & we've gotten much better at alignment & plumb, that "everybody just stand back, I'm drillin' this hole now".

One helpful key we discovered was to start a sort of pilot hole with manual post diggers first, 6" to 12" deep, whatever you can easily dig (if any ). That helps the auger bit stay right where you want it :thumbsup:

 

[RoyJackson]

Your friend is actually lucky (in a way) it was a post hole digger since those drivelines angle up toward the digger's gearbox. If it had been a driveline running horizontally, he'd probably be dead.
Of course, the angle of that driveline is what exposed him to the danger while setting on the seat.

 

[brin]

When my wife told me...I told her it was the first time I had heard of someone getting caught up in a PTO shaft and living to talk about it...

beppington....my father in law and I did the same thing you and your dad are doing...we drilled hundreds of holes with my father in law putting his weight on the top of the auger while I was on the tractor seat...We did not know any better...we were careful but it was still way too dangerous knowing now what we did not know then...I had a metal shop weld carbide blades on the cutting edge of our auger and never had a problem after that...

Roy....You are right about the angle....had that been a bush hog...I am certain he would have been dead...and in this case he was just luck the neighbor happend to come home for lunch which he never did and saw him going around and around behind the tractor !

 

[bullbreaker]

I'am always saddened when I here stories like these.
I hope and pray some here will read this and learn from others terrible experiences.Years with working with tractor,etc equipment have nothing to do with it.We have all heard of old-timers(cranking in gear) standing next to there tractors and getting run over.Or some tragedie like this one.
These safety related stories are all ways good too post.
We don't see it but somewhere down the line folks rememember and keep from getting injured or worse !

Boone

 

[JDgreen227]

I'am always saddened when I here stories like these.
I hope and pray some here will read this and learn from others terrible experiences.Years with working with tractor,etc equipment have nothing to do with it.We have all heard of old-timers(cranking in gear) standing next to there tractors and getting run over.Or some tragedie like this one.
These safety related stories are all ways good too post.
We don't see it but somewhere down the line folks rememember and keep from getting injured or worse !

Boone

You said it very well, I too am saddened when I learn of an accident like this and although I find them disturbing to read about, being reminded about "what if" is usually a good thing. Some people say the law of averages will catch up with you, like if you climb up enough ladders, someday gravity is going to get the advantage of you. IMO the majority of accidents working with tools and equipment are caused by familiarity with the tool or task at hand, like "I have cut down a thousand trees with this chain saw, never got hurt yet, never will, either....'cause I know what I am doing".

As for me, I have used chain saws for 25 years, they scared me back when I began using them and they still scare the (bleep) out of me. Guess that makes me super careful, which is a good thing.

 

[blueriver]

Man ... glad he survived. I'll bet he will approach safety in a whole new mind set ... too bad it happened ... sure makes us all think about safety.

Never ever can we be to carefull. Keep us posted on his condition.

 

[blueriver]

I'm thinking about this ... how many times do you suppose he went around and around before the guy shut it off? Thats a darn nightmare ... what if his pant legs would have somehow got caught in the auger while his sleeve was in the shaft ... man thats a scary deal.

 

[rockinmywaypa]

I was around 14 or 15 and witnessed my uncle get caught in a pto, He was lucky though, It stripped his coveralls off his body in a split second but he managed to grip the fenders and brace himself until the driver was able to shut it off. I'll tell you though it has made me one safe minded person my whole life and probably allowed me to size up situations and change them long before things got risky. That silver lining thing.