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Farm Tragedy

T

Tramway Guy

Well-known Member
A 13-year old girl died, after being caught in a PTO shaft. She was helping her father with a piece of equipment. Was about 20 miles from us.
This happens too often; and it is preventable. That?s the worst part.
 
What was they doing for her to be close to the PTO? Just curious how she ended up getting close enough to it for this to happen.
 
PTO shafts require a healthy amount of respect. A neighbor years ago used to step over the shaft of his forage blower while wearing floppy torn overalls. He would pull the PTO lever on the tractor running the forage wagon from the back of that tractor then straight across to the blower tractor. Surprised nothing ever happened to him. The wagon PTO seems less deadly but can wrap and kill just as easily as a bigger and faster turning shaft.
 
I know I?m gonna be flamed for this: I think the parents are guilty of child endangerment. No freaking reason in the world for a 13 yr girl to be anywhere near a pto shaft. I don?t let my dogs out when I?m using a tractor, much less kids. Completely unnecessary. Stupid.
 
Really sorry for the girl. Prayers sent.

Now, to the core of the matter. Like any dangerous machine whether it be a gun, a corn auger, or a PTO shaft, the REAL solution is to teach all persons involved what the dangers are and how to avoid them. Any person not familiar with the equipment should not be allowed near that equipment. Those who do not respect the machinery are destined to be a victim of that machinery. Those who are not familiar with the machinery should not go near the machinery until they are taught how to be safe and stay safe around it.
 
The parents are suffering horrible guilt and grief. They do not need to have fingers pointed at them at this time.
 
True and we do not know how much instruction she received on equipment safety and was perhaps distracted at the wrong time.. Years ago at a utility company substation
an inspection was going on in a transmission area. An employee who had been employed for quite a while prior to that day raised his hand to point to some equipment and
subsequently was electrocuted because he became the shortest and easiest path to ground. He of course received full training and did the required refreshers but for many
the day comes when they just are not fully focused or are distracted which creates great danger.
 
You obviously didn?t grow up on a farm or if you did, you sat in the house and watched your Pop bust his butt.
I would hate to guess how many guys in their late 40s and older I have seen step over a running pto. Maybe I am just super sensitive to them. I watched my Dad get his leg caught in one on a LA Case. I was 6 years old and have been doing most of the farm work since. That was in 1969..
As for children working around PTO shafts teach them young and you will never forget.
I am sure one of the last times that I spanked either of my daughters was when we were putting hay in the barn and they were not paying attention to the PTO
 
My 5 year old daughter and I came very close to having the same thing happen many years ago, she came out to visit Daddy when I was grinding feed...Even now all these years later it still puts a chill in my spine. So sorry for that family
 
Terrible tragedy.

For those claiming that training is the answer? 13 year old kids make dumb decisions and think they are indestructible. You may train them right but all it take is one second making a kid type decision.

Rick
 
Someone I know was mowing his lawn and his young son came running to say hello, slipped on the wet grass and slid under the mower. Lost a foot. Don't be to critical if you don't know the whole story. I feel bad for the girl and family.
 
For those pointing fingers with this, all I can say is shame on you. Who are you to cast judgement on a horrible accident?
Some of the best safety-trained individuals in all walks of life and occupations end up getting killed despite knowing about everything that can go wrong and how to deal with it if it does. I hope that something like this never happens to you or your family or friends but remember that it could, despite all of your teaching and preaching about safety.
 
As a high school freshman in 1969 I was surprised how many of my classmates had already been injured in farm accidents: a missing eye, fingertips missing, and arm lost, a good friend in the grade ahead of me died in a farm accident in the sixth grade.
 
That makes you sick for the family. Unforeseen things happen. Everyone always has 20/20 vision. A few years ago a kid I went to college with who i hadn't seen or talked to in 15 years had one of his twin boys fall off a utv he was driving that was pulling a mower.....The boy reached up to grab a walnut as they were moving and he fell off and under the mower. The boy didn't make it. I heard it on the radio and the dad's name was unique and it was his hometown. Sure enough it was him. Found his email and sent him my condolences. Still makes my stomach hurt when I think about what they went and continue to go through. Life is difficult and can be rather short sometimes, don't waste your time with it.
 
I agree, but agriculture in the US has a long history of child labor and even slave labor. On some farms ekking out a profit is still the most important thing. The health and safety of family, employees, customers (consumers), neighbors, and the community is all too often not important.
 
We had 2 deaths in the area last fall, one a fella my age out in the field and the other a near 20 year old fixing on stuff in the yard, both on the same day.

Really sobers a person up on how fast things happen.

Really hard with the youngsters.

Paul
 
(quoted from post at 09:16:00 05/21/19) The parents are suffering horrible guilt and grief. They do not need to have fingers pointed at them at this time.
Click to expand...

We need a "like" button - I would like your post 10,000 times.

Having wokred a number of accidental deaths of children over the years I cannot even really express the grief and guilt the parents suffer. I actually went to bat for a young couple and helped them to not be charged because there was no point in the legal system grinding them down further.
 
Prayers for the family, Horrible to lose a child, no matter why. Farms in general are very dangerous, I to this day
always remind myself to slow down and pay attention. So very sorry for their loss.
 
My posting was not to point fingers, (and I know hindsight is 20/20) but only to make people more aware that farm equipment can be dangerous. Yes, we all should know it already; but reminding can?t hurt.

Safety measures on equipment have improved markedly since I was growing up on the farm, but it needs to be maintained and used. I don?t know the exact circumstances in this case, but regardless, it is a tragedy. And all ages are vulnerable.
 
I am speechless no matter how it happened.
Her dad will live with this the rest of his life. Pray for them
 
Agree, this is a terrible tragedy, prayers for all.
Sometimes experience, training, and good intentions are not enough, accidents happen.
My heart aches, especially when a child is involved.
 
Pretty sure by the age of 13 I was doing nearly all the jobs on the farm except maybe planting. Many of these jobs included using equipment with a PTO. I think my parents were very safety conscious but many aspects of farm life are dangerous. So please do not condemn the family, especially without knowing the circumstances. Just keep them in your prayers, and pray for all of us on the farm who are in danger every day and who are trying to be diligent about teaching farm safety to our kids.
 
(quoted from post at 08:01:41 05/21/19) Who in their right mind goes anywhere near a moving pto shaft never alone letting their kids do it.
Click to expand...

That s my thinking. I ll bet it didn t even have a protective sleeve.
I started running machines for my dad in his shop @ 13. But nothing that could kill me. And if you re so hard up you can t provide a safe environment for your kids, you need to do something different. As far as guilt and pain? I think they ought to be prosecuted. Made and example of. Maybe the next guy will think twice if the kid being killed cost him some prison time. I don t care what you say, this was waste of life.
 
Bad deal all the way around. And while we can speculate as to wether or not it had a guard it doesn't change anything does it? To prosecute the parents is just another way of filling the prisons full. These things happen because people don't think. So "think about it next time" really doesn't apply here. Then of course those will come along and say X years of age is too young to be working. But with all the self entitled brats running around causing all kinds of grief and mischief how is that attitude working out. At the end of it it's a bad deal and I feel for those involved but it's simply a sh*t happens moment.

Sod Buster
 
Spook,For someone who has no clue where Crohgan, NY is-- For someone who has no clue as to what they were
even doing, or even what equipment was involved, and no clue about the family, You are making some really
uninformed and ridicules statements.
I suppose that your idea pf parenting is to place kids into a glass
bubble and only release them after they become 21.
We do not have the ability to control every second of our time. Both you or I may be dead by tomorrow, from some bizarre chain of events.------Loren
 
That was an unbelievably dumb thing to do, amazing he survived. Running pto's in stationary service look so motionless and harmless while humming away they practically disappear from your sight, you absolutely need the cover and chains on unless theres a physical cage or structure to keep tired people and kids out of them.
 
A terrible thing for sure and everyone needs to be careful around equipment.That said people including kids get killed every day doing a wide assortment of things,motor vehicle
deaths are the #1 killer of young people I've read.It cuts both ways when I was 9 years old local kid 8 years old got hit and killed on a bicycle his brother went with my dad and myself to play in a creek while dad baled a guy's hay.We rode with dad over to bale hay on the tractor,if the brother had rode with us he'd probably be alive today.
 
(quoted from post at 11:53:23 05/21/19) Spook,For someone who has no clue where Crohgan, NY is-- For someone who has no clue as to what they were
even doing, or even what equipment was involved, and no clue about the family, You are making some really
uninformed and ridicules statements.
I suppose that your idea pf parenting is to place kids into a glass
bubble and only release them after they become 21.
We do not have the ability to control every second of our time. Both you or I may be dead by tomorrow, from some bizarre chain of events.------Loren
Click to expand...

None of us knows our time, in the end. But it makes no sense to put a kid in that situation. I see kids riding in tractors frequently. But they are cab tractors, so there is protection. We had one local that had his 5 year old riding on the fender. The kid got run over by a 15 foot batwing bush hog. I worked around machinery all my life. But I wasn t a kid when I was working on the dangerous stuff. That kid never really had a choice.
 
Average 90 people many of them youngsters die every day in car crashes in the USA,You for stopping kids from riding in cars? Not many people worry about people killed in auto
accidents because its so common,unlike tractor and farm fatalities that are very small in numbers.
 
Wasn't to long ago a farmer in N E got his foot caught in an auger and had to cut the leg off with his pocket knife to get free. He was in good spirits considering when he was interviewed on tv. Only took a misstep to get him in trouble.
 
(quoted from post at 10:46:10 05/21/19)
(quoted from post at 08:01:41 05/21/19) Who in their right mind goes anywhere near a moving pto shaft never alone letting their kids do it.
Click to expand...

That s my thinking. I ll bet it didn t even have a protective sleeve.
I started running machines for my dad in his shop @ 13. But nothing that could kill me. And if you re so hard up you can t provide a safe environment for your kids, you need to do something different. As far as guilt and pain? I think they ought to be prosecuted. Made and example of. Maybe the next guy will think twice if the kid being killed cost him some prison time. I don t care what you say, this was waste of life.
Click to expand...


Spook, NUMB, just plain NUMB!!!! Even if you have never had a kid around yourself, you must have seen them on TV. They can be 100 yards away in a house one second and at your side the next, and aware of only what they are interested in at that moment.
 
I was 4 yrs old riding on the fender of a 3010 young uncle driving. hauling manure. slipped off the left fender in front of the rear wheel and was run over. He realized it before the spreader got me. spent 2 weeks in the hospital dr told mom I would have a very fast metabolism or slow one. He was right cant get much slower. 52 now and no ill effects other than that. I was lucky.
 
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