Government mower

[rd_macgregor]

Usually the government is eager to implement all kinds of detailed (and sometimes silly) regulations to protect us from our own stupidity. Most of the time, they are also equally conscientious about safety rules for their own employees. Here is an exception that has bugged me for the past couple of years.
This is one of several fancy mowers used to maintain the grounds at an Agriculture Canada Research Station facility in Prince Edward Island. Not only do the operators NEVER put the ROPS up, it is obvious that the ROPS is never intended to be raised. Notice that there is a tool box bolted across the lowered ROPS in such a way that raising the ROPS would dump all the tools out onto the ground (no, I couldn't see any kind of latch on the tool box).
There are several places on the property where these guys mow along roadside ditches, so a rollover is always possible. It MAY never happen, but somebody will be in trouble if it does and someone is injured or killed.
BOB

 

[crazyal]

Is the the top of the box facing up or is it facing backwards and the latch is keeping it closed? Of course if they had to drill holes or weld a mount to the ROPS that's would have been a stupid thing to do.

 

[Heavyduty]

Usually the government is eager to implement all kinds of detailed (and sometimes silly) regulations to protect us from our own stupidity. Most of the time, they are also equally conscientious about safety rules for their own employees. Here is an exception that has bugged me for the past couple of years.
This is one of several fancy mowers used to maintain the grounds at an Agriculture Canada Research Station facility in Prince Edward Island. Not only do the operators NEVER put the ROPS up, it is obvious that the ROPS is never intended to be raised. Notice that there is a tool box bolted across the lowered ROPS in such a way that raising the ROPS would dump all the tools out onto the ground (no, I couldn't see any kind of latch on the tool box).
There are several places on the property where these guys mow along roadside ditches, so a rollover is always possible. It MAY never happen, but somebody will be in trouble if it does and someone is injured or killed.
BOB

Did yall see that the safety deflector is held back by a bungee cord?
If you run over a stick or rock it can bounce off that tree and hit the operator. It happened to me, so I know it's possible.:laughing:

 

[tcartwri]

If the ROPS is deemed to be a hazard to the operator, it can be folded down. Grass cutting around trees definitely meets that criteria.

 

[rd_macgregor]

Here's a shot from a different angle. I'm sure that mowing under trees is a contributing factor to having the ROPS folded all the time; as the landscaping matures, that should be less and less of an excuse, though.
The hinges on the toolbox are at the back/top and, as far as I can tell, there is no latch, so the lid would flap like the tailgate on a dumptruck if they ever raised the ROPS.
I have to admit that I am assuming the box is bolted to/through the ROPS bars (otherwise it would bounce around too much), but I haven't actually looked closely to verify this.
BOB

 

[Mace Canute]

Did yall see that the safety deflector is held back by a bungee cord?
If you run over a stick or rock it can bounce off that tree and hit the operator. It happened to me, so I know it's possible.:laughing:

Not to mention he is cutting with the discharge pointing to a sidewalk. He might stop when someone comes down the sidewalk, but who knows for sure? Maybe he figures he is far enough away from the pedestrian that it's safe, but we all know how far a small heavy object can be launched by mower blades...much farther than most people would ever expect...and having the deflector up in the air allows any object shot out to be launched upwards instead of down along the ground. I consider that to be more of a concern than the ROPS.

 

[Heavyduty]

Not to mention he is cutting with the discharge pointing to a sidewalk. He might stop when someone comes down the sidewalk, but who knows for sure? Maybe he figures he is far enough away from the pedestrian that it's safe, but we all know how far a small heavy object can be launched by mower blades...much farther than most people would ever expect...and having the deflector up in the air allows any object shot out to be launched upwards instead of down along the ground. I consider that to be more of a concern than the ROPS.

Yeap, those unseen hazards seem to show up at the worst possible time.

Many years ago when I was a kid, I was cutting the grass between the road/ditch when a rock bounced off the road and hit my sister in the forehead. Guess who dad blamed for that one?

 

[Taylortractornut]

I got ticket from an OSHA man one time for being over 6 feet off the ground without being tied off gettin on a 980 Cat loader once. He was helping paint the office he worked at and fell off a scaffold without a harness. I had to laugh at him.

 

[Rustyiron]

I got ticket from an OSHA man one time for being over 6 feet off the ground without being tied off gettin on a 980 Cat loader once. He was helping paint the office he worked at and fell off a scaffold without a harness. I had to laugh at him.

Too bad all the OSHA inspectors don't fall on their ***** now and then, that way they would know what a pain in the ***** that they are!
Don't get me started on that topic!
It seems that all the folding rops fold at a point that in a rollover where would be enough room left for surviving with a bumped head only, that is if your tied in.

 

[jinman]

Maybe I am wrong, but I'd bet the mowing is done by a contractor instead of a gov't employee. If it were in the US, I'm sure it would be that way, but I'm not sure about Canada.:confused3: The reason I say it's a contractor is there aren't 4 or 5 guys standing around doing nothing and the guy on the mower is actually smiling.:laughing:

 

[mjncad]

When I worked for NREL, I had a paving contractor comment to me, "You guys have so many rules that you don't follow; yet you expect us too."

Unfortunately he was right, and I agreed with him totally.

 

[zythinl]

HA I was working for a mowing company for about a year and my boss had the bright idea to take the ROPS completely off the mower and we never had them.
the funny thing was that it made the mowers unstable so then he welded some weights to the back of the mower to fix that:confused2: i never quite understood it myself

 

[rd_macgregor]

These guys are definitely government employees. Whoever does their job orientation does manage to convince them to stop the mower whenever pedestrians come near; they're very good about that. The smiling guy is doing so because he stopped mowing when he saw me taking pictures, then smiled when he realized it was HIM I was taking pics of!
BOB

 

[xtn]

Is it possible that the tool box is on little pivoting mounts, such that it will always swing upright regardless of the ROPS position?

xtn

 

[rd_macgregor]

Is it possible that the tool box is on little pivoting mounts, such that it will always swing upright regardless of the ROPS position?

xtn

I thought of that solution, too, but no, that would make too much sense for a government operation!

 

[DANOCHEESE]

Should'nt you as a good citizen report this violation. You know about a issue but choose to post it on an internet site instead of investigating this with the powers to be.

Get involved it is your goverment

 

[Bird]

Did yall see that the safety deflector is held back by a bungee cord?
If you run over a stick or rock it can bounce off that tree and hit the operator. It happened to me, so I know it's possible.:laughing:

I happened to notice one of our city mowers today, a Kubota F series machine being operated with the deflector pulled wide open. The discharge was toward the street, but he was on the other side of a borrow ditch, so it was blowing down into the ditch.

 

[Qapla]

Is it possible that the tool box is on little pivoting mounts, such that it will always swing upright regardless of the ROPS position?

Even if it was, it would hit him in the head if the ROPS were raised.

Hey ... at least he is wearing "ear protection"

 

[Taylortractornut]

We had a county mower mowing in front of a daycare with the boom mower mowing the tops of the trees with kids in the play ground. A few years ago whe nwest nile was the big scare the city would come around the county with a lawn mower in the back of a ranger with a malathiaon drip in the muffler. They came through by the same daycare and fogged out the same play ground.

 

[crazyal]

Before I worked for the large company I'm at now I worked for a contractor who occasionally did work there. To do work for them you had to go through a class taught by them. It was kind of funny. If you were on a ladder or lift more than 6' off the ground you needed to have a harness attached to two different points. However if you were on a 6' ladder it was ok to use the top two steps (the ones that say no step). Their logic was that you were standing on them and there for it was a platform not a step. Never understood it but the lawyers did.

I wouldn't know but they may have done an assessment and determined that the ROPS was not needed because of the (lack of) slope of the land and the difficulty of getting under the trees. Are ROPS required yet in Canada for commercial mowers?