Safety Reminder

Billy NY · Oct 7, 2017

Yesterday while driving back from a job site in SMS's neck of the woods,(lower hudson valley area), I am admiring a great looking field of tall corn, that the farmer started chopping. I see the tractor and I think a New Holland chopper. Look closer and there is the farmer, off the tractor and in front of the corn head/pick-up doing something. While I glanced over, I see something come through the chute. This fool was working to clear it or something while it was running !!! Why do people do things like this?

Reason I mention it is because when I was very young, my long time farmer friend who is now deceased, had one of his helpers, (a very nice, semi-retired man) get mangled up in equipment used at the silo when filling the silo from what he called "chuck wagons" JD wagons which he had until not that long ago. Must have been a silage blower the man was caught in. He was mortally wounded, and the emergency personnel were able to talk with him until he passed. I spoke with one those people in recent times about this accident as it was a long time ago. No one spoke of it ever on that farm, it was very sad, as they were great friends, the farmer and the man who was killed on his farm.

Be careful out there !

NY 986 · Oct 7, 2017

Not that any piece of equipment should be treated lightly but it was drummed into my head while very young that choppers and blowers can be lethal if not given healthy respect.

FBH44 · Oct 7, 2017

Friend on mine was clearing a corn chopper and got a hand caught, three years ago, had to amputate his own hand with his pocket knife.

Leroy · Oct 7, 2017

Corn pickers, combines and balers, even corn shreaders as well. Different neighbors had one hand due to corn pickers.

fixerupper · Oct 7, 2017

I'm hesitant to tell this story out of respect for the family but I hope it might open some eyes. My son is on the local fire dept. Two or three falls ago he had to help with the extrication of a young man's body who went partly through a silage chopper. For several days afterwards he would call me, sniffling just to talk it out. I still have trouble looking at a chopper without thinking about this young lad who had so much promise in life. Be very careful.

jeffcat · Oct 7, 2017

Dont forget the post in here about the guys wife and a PTO shaft. Very sad.

620 John · Oct 7, 2017

Anything with moving parts is a hazard.

I've heard endless stories of accidents on all types of equipment.

One thing I always do with pto equipment is shut the tractor off if I have to work on something. Even though the pto is disengaged I still hate working on anything that could potentially start moving.

Phil9N3667 · Oct 7, 2017

On a different side of these stories, a few years ago in the Tidewater, VA area, Portsmouth, I believe , a young fellow about 14 or so died in a wood chipper. He was helping family and friends do yard cleanup, feeding the chipper and got pulled into and through it. Hindsight being 20/20, he should never have been near it, much less feeding it. I've been most fortunate myself over the years with firewood, helping on the farm at a younger age, knock on wood, never got hurt.

Arvin Haslem · Oct 7, 2017

The first person to die from my graduating class of 1974 got wrapped up in a PTO. Summer of 75.

Mike M · Oct 7, 2017

I have worked a lot in parts depts. There are a lot of farmers with injuries and many missing limbs. Very sad but they seem to get by ok somehow.
Pull type corn pickers have the nick name of "farmer delimber" in this area.

Everyone try and remember to shut the tractor off if you have to work on it or an implement hooked to it. Not 100% possible all the time ,but try and keep these stories fresh in your mind so you are extra cautious.

37chief · Oct 7, 2017

I can see how that will happen. Those old chippers were very dangerous. I have one of those old ones. When it is running top speed by a ford v8 industrial engine, it will take a 15-20 ft limb, and be gone in an instant. Last time I used it, my fork got grabbed right out of my hand before I realized it was gone. The new ones are a lot safer as they go slower, with safety trips if someone gets pulled in. Stan

gene bender · Oct 7, 2017

I was just short of being 14 with a new M and AC combine and was told if i ever see you off the seat with it running you will pay so it was a habbit that you just dont do it

BushogPapa · Oct 7, 2017

I have heard that "If it has T??tS or Wheels", you are going to have trouble with it...

Seems so...

flying belgian · Oct 7, 2017

This week I was over helping neighbor adjust floating sickle and automatic header height on his 6620 combine as he doesn't have a clue. Each time I was going to make another adjustment I had him shut off engine. This was especially important as he stayed seated in combine as he is extremely heavy and struggles getting in and out. After a couple times he asked if he could leave engine running so he wouldn't where down battery. I said if you do I'm going home. Period.

sms · Oct 7, 2017

If you are still working at the prison they had an inmate get caught in a PTO shaft years ago, friend and neighbor was the guard working the prison farm at that time. Also someone I knew brother got too close to a truck mounted snowblower and was pulled in and killed. Always think safety and try to keep a safe work environment.

Billy NY · Oct 7, 2017

Down your way twice a month, working in Sullivan. That must have been Woodbourne, I see the farm and equipment below the prison, field is alfalfa. This is the farm with fields on both sides of 209 further north past the new bridge going up in Accord/Rochester. There is a burned out stone house on this farm, should be rebuilt, looks like it was really nice at one time. Field on the left he was chopping in, could not believe this guy was working on it, alone, while it was running. Only way I could tell was by whatever it was that came through the chute.

rrman61 · Oct 7, 2017

Couple years ago an older man who owned a hay equipment business and had been making hay all his life got too close to a pro driven tedder.hit him in the head and killed him instantly.no one could figure out why he even needed to be off the tractor much less why not turn off the pto

showcrop · Oct 7, 2017

A few weeks ago my cousin, the one of about twenty that I have been closest to, got killed when the body of one of his dump trucks fell on him as he was getting it ready for silo filling.

Thomasthetankengine · Oct 7, 2017

Its not just machines but hand tools too. Knew a terrific guy who was using a loose handled fork that should have been thrown away. Came apart went into a blower and back out at him. Left a nice family behind.

Stephen Newell · Oct 7, 2017

That kind of stupid is why they put a switch in the seats now which turn the tractor off if you get off the seat.

barnyardorange · Oct 7, 2017

You weren't too far away from my neck of the woods. Poughkeepsie. Not many farms left in our area. -Donald

wisbaker · Oct 7, 2017

My freshman High School math teacher had kinda of a funny walk, seems when he was in High School himself he was was running an AC combine, probably behind some sort of 2 cylinder John Deere, he plugged it up, got off the tractor with the PTO running and "kicked" the combine where it was plugged, then he picked up his toe and wrapped it up in his hankie and drove himself to the hospital to have it put back on. He warned us farm kids not to do stupid stuff like kicking running combines, balers and corn pickers. He mentioned the only good thing was about the time he got out of high school Vietnam was going hot and heavy and with a joint missing in his big toe he was 4F, which he explained meant "If the Canadians were massing at the border and getting ready to invade us they might THINK about drafting him"

Safety Reminder

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