Snow Blowing Safety

[George2615]

Watch where you are going and watch for traffic. I read in this mornings paper that on Tuesday an 81 year old man who lived in the county adjacent to me was killed while removing snow. He was exiting his driveway on his JD tractor w/ snow blower and pulled into the path of an SUV. Snowy and windy conditions made the road slick and the SUV could not stop. Police presume that he was headed across the road to plow his son's driveway. The impact threw the man off the tractor and into the road. He was flown to the hospital with severe injuries and died on Wednesday.

At this time of year the road I live on is often snow packed. The road has a posted limit of 40MPH (which very few people observe) and I am often hesitant of driving on it since I too take my tractor across the road to plow neighbors out.

All the flashing lights, headlights, SMV sign, reflective tape, and four way flashers on your tractor can warn motorists but not stop their vehicle if either you or they are not paying attention.

BE SAFE

 

[Tig]

I don't like doing the end of my lane. I disengage the blower and let the blown snow clear to be certain that I an not missing anything before I blow through the plow bank to the road. My lane ends in a village and cars can come around a couple of corners and surprise me. Often drivers approach with no caution what so ever.

 

[ramoffroader]

I have a half circle driveway and trees on both ends. I have gotton to the point where I try to plow/snowblow at night. That way I can see headlights coming and my rotary light on my tractor sticks out better. I have more than once forgot to check behind me or pull out with out looking. After you make a dozen or so passes back and forth its easy to forget. The other item is people refuse to slow down no matter road conditions. I always assume when i see someone plowing that they dont see me till I make eye contact with the operator. The general public assumes that because they have the right away you must see them and stop. Unfortunately this is not always the case and accidents happen.

 

[PILOON]

I have reflectors all around plus a big rotating caution light on top but I can't count the times where somebody just steps on it and try to squeek my what little space there might be.
Sure creates some 'seat pucker' at times.
What's the big rush?

Seems that folks all want to be there yesterday!

 

[George2615]

I have reflectors all around plus a big rotating caution light on top but I can't count the times where somebody just steps on it and try to squeek my what little space there might be.
Sure creates some 'seat pucker' at times.
What's the big rush?

Seems that folks all want to be there yesterday!

I agree and see it every day on my way to and from work. 90% of people on the road pass me when I do the speed limit. High gas / fuel prices didn't slow them down one bit. They could raise the price of gas to $6 a gallon and they'd still fly by me. I don't know what the hurry is. The same is true on my road as I said before. Maybe they can't read the posted limit sign. I called the State PD and Sheriff's dept. about 17 years ago when my kids were small and told them they could set up radar in my yard and write tickets all day long but they never came. They'd rather wait till someone gets hit. When I read that article in the paper I thought that could have been me so thought I'd post this to remind everyone to try and be more aware when operating close to or in the road.

 

[LBrown59]

Seems that folks all want to be there yesterday!

Everybody's in a big rush to get to nowhere to do nothing when they get there.

L B

 

[Dutch445]

very sad day for the family.

i believe the tractor was a jd 855 with
front blower..

i saw a couple years ago pictures on this
board of a kubota that broke in half
after being hit by a vehicle in the road..
it's dangerous place to be..

 

[JDeerekid]

Yes I heard about the man killed while clearing his driveway.
I am always watching when I pull out into the road and even in my own driveway watching the dog and such.
I live on a dead end road and still have to watch when backing out of my drive way. Last year we had 3 different incidents where 2 where kids just screwing around and going fast down the road and never stopped at the end. They ran right over the stop sign and drove right into the field. Got stuck and had the cops there and the wrecker to pull them out. The other one was a drunk driver trying to outrun the cops and was drunck enough to go down a dead end road. This was in the middle of winter and a good size snow bank was built up at the end. He definately got hurt. Snow bank was about 20 ft tall cause the town payloader pushed it back. All you saw was the back half of the car out of the snowbank. Let me say as soon as you speed up a little bit on my road you have to slow down becuase you are at the end.
Anyways I am always on the look out for others.