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Tractor Operation On/Near Roads

2K views 10 replies 10 participants last post by  RetiredDoc 
#1 ·
This happened locally:

Hubert Brown: Whitewater Township trustee dies after tractor crash - Story

Please remember that operating on (or even near) a road should be done with extreme caution. Especially with the snow season upon us, let's all have fun and live to tell about it.

Don't depend on lights or signs to be seen. You should also not consider yourself safe because you're not even close to the road. Cars can and will travel far after they've left the highway. :good2:
 
#2 ·
Sorry to hear this. I lost a uncle years ago in a farm accident and a farmer near DeWitt was killed last fall during harvest. Every body please be careful and keep your eyes open:bigthumb::bigthumb:
 
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#3 ·
Waynesboro crash involving tractor turns fatal

  


WAYNESBORO, Pa --

QUINCY TOWNSHIP, FRANKLIN COUNTY, Pa — Two people are dead after an SUV drifts into a farm tractor in Franklin County on Saturday 

According to state police the SUV was travelling South on Wayne Highway around 3:00 p.m. when it drifted into a farm tractors path.

The passenger of the SUV was not wearing a seat belt and was ejected from the vehicle. Both the passenger and the driver of the SUV were pronounced dead on scene.

Nobody in the tractor was injured.


always be safe driving on roads :thumbup1gif:
 
#4 ·
Always makes me nervous cleaning snow from the ends of my and neighbors driveways. People just won’t slow down, I’m on a fairly quite back road but it only takes one idiot. Same when we are pulling implements and hay wagons from fields, can’t never be too carful. Sorry to hear about this, feel for him and family.
About three years ago a guy that works with my wife was on his golf cart getting the mail when someone hit and killed him. Always sad to hear.
 
#5 ·
I'm with you on that one. My 2720 has front and rear lights but virtually nothing that is visible from the side. I always hold my breath any time I am turning around at the end of the driveway or crossing our little two lane road. Before last snow season I added a super bright Class 1 LED strobe to my ROPS. It doesn't protect me 100% from idiot drivers but I'm 200% more visible than I was before.
 
#6 ·
At the other end of the spectrum.....

I live in the mountains. In order to get to civilization, I drive through an active agricultural area (mostly Amish). There's a farmer who cultivates a number of fields and he drives one of these on a state highway to get from one field to another:

Land vehicle Vehicle Tractor Field Agricultural machinery


The problem is not just when you get stuck behind him. With a cultivator hanging off the back the damn thing is SO WIDE that it overhangs enough into the OPPOSITE LANE that you could either be crushed or run into the ditch if you run into him coming the other way!

Al
 
#7 ·
I live in the mountains. In order to get to civilization, I drive through an active agricultural area (mostly Amish). There's a farmer who cultivates a number of fields and he drives one of these on a state highway to get from one field to another:

View attachment 467266

The problem is not just when you get stuck behind him. With a cultivator hanging off the back the damn thing is SO WIDE that it overhangs enough into the OPPOSITE LANE that you could either be crushed or run into the ditch if you run into him coming the other way!

Al
I had to follow two combines for about two miles last week. They were taking up about 80% of two lanes. Approaching traffic was pulling off the road to let them pass. Rural roads, NOT the highway. What really surprised me was how fast they were able to go, 25+mph, that's faster than either of my tractors will go.
 
#9 ·
I to have added many LED lights for plowing in the winter. It does help, you still need eyes in the back of your head, My theory is: "People run into Trains every day". So be careful out there.
 
#10 ·
My FIL is always stressing that all you can do is all that you CAN do. Clean, unfaded SMV sign, flashers on on the tractor and whenever you have the opportunity to pull over then do so. It is simply not the best situation to be driving a tractor with a top speed of maybe 20 and very limited visibility, especially when implements or a loaded hay wagon are mixed in. Do your part and try and stay safe, that is all we can do as the tractor operators.
 
#11 ·
The OP was a sad story. The driver of the car was alcohol-impaired. Now, the tractor in the news picture appeared to me not to have either a SMV emblem or tail lights. Whether the drunk driver would have seen and avoided the tractor if it had an emblem and functioning flashers will never be known, but it's a good lesson in the importance of making a slow moving tractor as visible as possible.

Since 70 percent of tractor collision deaths happen on roads with posted speed limits of 50mph or higher, the huge difference of speed between a 9mph tractor and a 65mph car plays a key role, since car drivers have limited time to react, and I would imagine don't realize at first that the tractor is moving so slowly.

Here is an interesting quote from the Farm Injury Resource Center, using 2010 census information about the 50 nation-wide tractor operator deaths resulting from vehicle collisions. "If you are injured in a tractor-vehicle collision, it will likely not be your (the operators) fault."

But you'll be just as injured or dead as if you caused the accident.
 
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