Tractor/pto death

[b249]

Had a local farm hand get killed yesterday (27 years working on the same farm...not a rookie). He was wearing loose fitting sleaves with a pair of coveralls when he got his hand/arm too close to the pto shat that did not have the protective sleeve on it. Ripped his arm off & he is d.r.t.

I feel bad for his family and coworkers for this needless death.

 

[Youare]

A few years ago my brother-in-law was asked to check on a fellow who was using a PTO driven saw mill behind his house in the woods. It was past the time he was usually home so the wife of this guy was concerned and called my brother-in-law asking him to see if he was still there.

Well, when he got to the site he found the guy had gotten a piece af clothing caught in the PTO shaft, the details I will leave out, he was dead.

Even a compact tractor PTO has enough power to do a person in, maybe there should be a kill switch located in the 3PH area for those who don't think they need to turn off the PTO while doing something back there.

Randy

 

[b249]

Incidents like these happen too quick, there would not be time to flip a switch. 'Spose you could use a lanyard type kill switch like on boats, but by the time the lanyard tightens enough the damage has all ready been done and the pto shaft has been neatly (or not so neatly) wrapped with whatever the person was wearing.

I would imagine that by the time he realized he did something really, really wrong he only had the time to think "aw #$%^"

 

[reedfish1954]

A real tragedy. Moral of the story is "turn the tractor's PTO OFF when performing maintence.

 

[Soundguy]

I guess that is why we don't see belt/pulley attatchments much anymore... but there are still a few stationary attatchments like generators / pumps, etc that could give cause for alarm..

Soundguy

 

[Kiohio]

Just an aside, Are the stay chains on your PTOs intact? Or do you use them?
KO

 

[b249]

yes to both, although I have had to repair them a few times. The plastic hole on the pto does not seem to have a very long lifespan. Incidents like this push me away from taking the lazy way out.

Mark

 

[frank_f15]

i wonder if they could put a kill switch on the seat, if the pto is engaged and u get off the tractor the engine quits, this is the way my GT works, if attachment clutch is engaged , get off the tracto and it dies. not sure if this would be practicle for tractors tho.. am sure there must be some apps. where it is necessary to get off tractor, and still have equiptment running. i guess no matter how safe things are made thered is no replacement for common sense.

 

[gerard]

think you answered you own question - you could put a kill switch on and just about every farmer out there would disable it. Lot of times you need the pto running with tractor unattended ie no one in seat. Running generator, silage blower are tow applications that come to mind....... I'd rather not see more "safety" features built into equipment as they will NEVER replace common sense OR protect one from oneself. I prefer to see safety equipment which prevents accidents due to mechanical failure, not human error. I really don't need a guard on a snowblower chute because too many idiots don't shut the engine down while clearing a clog and chew up their hand.

 

[MJB]

My JD4300 has a safety switch like that. If the PTO is engaged and the operator gets out of the seat the tractor will shut down. There is also a procedure you can follow in order to operate the PTO without an operator in the seat, although I don't remember exactly what the steps are right now.