Another Bad Farm Tractor Accident

Here is a link to another farm accident that I found on the news. This one involves a tractor.


Whizkid
Bad Tractor Accident

I see idiots like that all the time, a local guy just got a JD 4 wheel drive front tire torn off by some jacka$$ trying to pass him in a double line no passing zone. Passer got injured , farmer got tractor destroyed!!! No reason for it!! And no matter how carefull you are there is always an idiot out there just waiting to do something stupid.

I run a JD 9430 articulated tractor at work, and pull a set of "tanker trains" (2 6500 gal balzer manure tankers hooked together) with a injector on the rear.. (I'm gonna post pictures here someday, I swear..)

Yesterday (Monday) I was roading from one injection site to another and was on a rather narrow paved 2 lane road. I was unable to ease over much, as there was little shoulder and a real deep ditch, so I traveled on and got over as much as possible to let traffic by..

I was passed 2 times on this 3 mile stretch, which isn't surprising.. everyone is in a hurry these days.. what did surprise me was:

The first person was a farmer, pulling a anhydrous wagon.. and he was wasting very little time pulling it (with what also appeared to be the safety chain dragging)

The second person was someone in a little car.. who DROVE THROUGH SOMEONES FRONT LAWN to pass me. I don't mean the driver side wheels were in the lawn.. THE WHOLE CAR WAS.. and they cut even higher to swerve around the resident of said home's mailbox...

We've all been in a hurry now and then.. but I find i hard to come up with a scenario when I'd be in such a hurry to have such disrespect for someone else's property..

Brad

I was pulling a large manure spreader with a
White 2-135 tractor. A car was coming over a
hill and lost control. He knocked off half my front end bounced off the back tire. His car kept going and ended up in a ditch. I hardly felt the bang. The guy crawled out of his car shirt and pants torn. Blood was coming down his face. He asked me if I was hurt. I was just sitting the seat trying to figure out where half my front end went. His car was totaled.
No tickets were issued. But, his insurance
company tried to sue me with no success.
Also, drove the tractor home on 3 wheels.

No surprise the guy was liquored up.Idiot.

Vito

The late Merle Watson (musician) was driving a tractor drunk when his fatal accident occurred.

This article has a few more details.

OK, so the driver of the car was driving under a suspended license, drunk, had no insurance, and left the scene. I'm sure even in Kentucky that will earn him a few years in the slammer if they convict him of vehicular homicide. If he had stayed off the road, the driver of the tractor would be alive.

However, it sounds like the tractor made a left-hand turn in front of the car, as the car was overtaking him. If so, he was in the wrong. It's entirely possible the car would have hit him if its driver was stone-cold sober. Here we have a 77-year-old man, driving a tractor at twilight. Not a very safe situation to start with. Throw a drunk driver in the mix and it becomes fatal.
Car tractor crash

Don't know, Mark; RE: overtaking/passing. Locally, I'm told that anytime a vehicle is passing another, anything 'bad' that happens is on the passer. Haven't looked for the specific traffic laws. In the late '70s, we had an employee......pulling a load of something, (can't remember what)...... on a 4-wheel trailer behind a 1066 on a 2-lane blacktop; he turned left into a driveway; fellow driving a new car attempted to pass and hit the left front tire/wheel of the tractor. Did several thousand dollars of damage to the car; tractor wasn't hurt. Cop ticketed the car's driver and lectured him about improper passing. I was in a pick-up behind the tractor; he'd just passed me and I saw the whole thing. The driver was a local hot-head; he jumped out and asked the tracter driver, "Do you know who I am?" "Yeah, I think you're the SOB who just hit me."

I have passed and been passed many times on a farm tractor, that being said, you must slow to the speed of the tractor, then pass. If you do not do that you are going to have a rear end colision with me. I do not let anyone "blow" by me at 60mph, on a narrow road!

You said that you do not let them "blow by me" My question is how do you keep them from "blowing" by you? Your tractor travels at 16-22 mph and the car will go 60 or better.

Thurlow,

If the accident occurred in an intersection, you're right: It's illegal to pass in an intersection. If the vehicle turning left made a proper signal, even if it was not in an intersection, the overtaking vehicle would be in the wrong. In this case, there's no evidence the driveway was at an intersection, the tractor would likely have had no turn signals, and any hand signals would be hard to see if it was close to dusk. Had the driver of the car not been drinking, would he still be considered at fault?

A couple of years ago here in Michigan, a drunk driver plowed into a State Police cruiser. The drunk was in the far left lane when the cruiser cut across all four lanes of traffic so he could make a U-turn at an emergency vehicle turnaround. I think the trooper survived, while his prisoner in the back seat was killed. Needless to say, it didn't go well in courtroom for the drunk.

I do not leave room to pass til I am ready for them to pass. I know it's right cause many drivers show me that I'm no. one with the salute! I feel that some control must be maintained and that is the only way I can think of doing it, tell me if I'm wrong!

There was another fatal accident the other day by Wichita, KS. Paper didn't give the exact details but apparently he was pulling a stump with a tractor, it came unhooked, he got off with it running, it managed to slip into reverse and pinned him against the stump, killing him. Paper website may have some details now. www.kansas.com

What is not safe about a 77 year old man driving a tractor at twilight?

Last time I checked their is not an age limit or time of day limit for driving tractors.

It would be quite tough to drive machinery during "ideal" daylight hours and try to get anything done.

MSJ, there are lots of reports on this forum of guys getting killed in tractor accidents. I've noticed a disproportionate number are elderly men. Experience doesn't help if your judgement is gone. Maybe he was in the right. He was dead right as it turned out.

It is dangerous or maybe fatal to rely on hand signals when you drive a tractor. Most idiots interpret ANY hand signal to mean "come on by". I have had two or three close calls making when a left turn, after giving the proper hand signal. Now if I have to make a left turn, I stop and wait until anyone behind me also stops, or passes me. I don't know if that is the correct way to do it, but it is less nerve wracking in the long run.

I just hate being dead right. Makes for a bad day.