Sometimes I get viewer comments that make me cringe. I received one last week from Tommy, who survived a potentially fatal tractor accident. There are a few lessons to be learned from his situation to keep the rest of us safe.
His letter read: “Earlier this year I was using my side rotary cutter. It threw out a rock and hit me right in the back of the head. Knocked me out cold! I went off the opposite side (thank God) of the mower but the back wheel ran over my leg. I got 28 stitches but nothing major happened to my leg luckily. If my mower wouldn’t have had a canvas cover to slow the rock down a bit it could possibly have killed me. My tractor went for about an acre till it got in the woods and stalled it. I had a good long walk back up to the house and almost passed out a few times since I lost a lot of blood. So much they were giving me blood while fixing me up. No clue where that rock came from because I’ve mowed that spot dozens and dozens of times. It must have just popped up enough over time for the mower to catch it. Now I’m paranoid every time I mow LOL. I bought another canvas cover and left the old one and just stuck the new one on top of that one. It was a pretty old cover so possibly if it had been in good shape I would have been ok. So now I’m not going to store that thing out in the weather and replace the canvas when I feel it’s worn. Live and learn.”
Tommy is really lucky. Most of us who have run cutters on the back of tractors have had a similar experience. Blades are spinning very fast and if you hit a rock just right, it can throw it out and there’s no way to predict where it’ll go. I’ve been hit in the back of the leg by a rock thrown by a Bush Hog, and how it got through the tractor to get to me I have no idea. My dad kicked a rock out of a ditch when I was a kid that just missed me. It’s a big problem.
Takeaways from Tommy’s story are 1) Always wear a seat belt when brush hogging, 2) If you have an operator-presence safety switch on the seat, don’t disable it, 3) Make sure all shields/chains/ canvasses are functioning when you mow and 4) Keep everyone away from you when you’re running cutting equipment with a tractor.
The danger of thrown objects is real and more common than you may think. Tommy’s testimony is a good lesson for all of us.
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In around 1978 I was ploughing a field for summer fallow. The plough caught a rock about the size of a fist and launched it back at the tractor. Luckily for me it hit the seat with one hell of a bang. Could have ended real bad for me that day. And put a dent in the seat. There was no cab for any protection.
Mike, the phenomenon of rocks rising to the surface is a fairly well undestood, it is the same phenomenon that makes larger heavier things (like nuts or dried fruits) float to the top of your cereal box. In the cereal box , vibration during transport causes the larger objects to move and this can create a small space below them which is then filled with smaller (cereal) particles, eventually it goes all the way to the top. A similar thing happens in the soil, the rock moves due to vibration or freeze thawing or water and makes a small hole below it which is then filled with smaller soil particles and eventuall the rock reaches the surface. On the subject of thrown objects, I have a hedge flail mower attachment on my compact tractor and on the advice of the dealer I fitted a perspex screen to the back and side of my tractor to protect me from thrown objects.
While I was spreading manure a rock come out and hit me in the back of my shoulder. From that moment on I ALWAYS wore a hard hat. Also have seen rotary cutters pull roots out of the ground and fling them. Always put safety first. My favorite saying "I like me too well" to let something happen
We don't have many rocks in the field here in the Texas Panhandle but I have had a safety wake-up call. A few years ago I was trying to put the last couple pieces of trim on a rabbit hutch I had built. I thought I could get it finished during the Bears half time so I was rushing to make it back for the second half. I had grabbed a long piece of trim and was stopping by the barn to pick up a tool before heading to the hutch. Like several times before my plan was to let off the HST acceleration pedal, jump off the tractor, grab the tool inside the barn then continue on. Unfortunately, while traveling toward the overhead door of the barn, the piece of trim had worked its way under the pedal of the accelerator pinning the pedal down. As I let off the pedal to jump off, the tractor kept moving forward and into the overhead door. Before I could react I was half way through the 14' door. Amazingly, the only thing injured was my pride and the 14' door. An $800 repair bill was better than a hospital bill. Since then I never carry anything on the tractor that could interfere with the pedals.
Good information. Will definitely share!
A local farmer, Warren McKenzie, was killed while bush hogging back in July. He got off his tractor to open a gate with the blade still spinning. He was run over and the results was an awful mess for the people who had to pick up the pieces. A farmer across from my shop was killed twenty-ish years ago when his shirt was caught in a PTO shaft. Be careful folks. It only takes a second to drastically alter or end a life.
Great video, Mike! Thanks for beating the safety drum; it's easy to get complacent doing daily work. Your reminders are always welcome.
This is why flail mowers are worth every extra penny over a rotary cutter. A flail throws things DOWN instead of OUT like a bullet. That's why VDOT uses flails and sickle bars instead of rotary cutters. They don't want to be constantly breaking windows. There are too many stories of people getting seriously hurt or killed and rocks and other debris damaging property.
I wear a safety helmet when working with open station equipment and mow my ditches with a sickle mower.
Not much chance of throwing a rock at traffic.
Tommy new canvas cover, plus football helmet…LOL
Hi from Queensland Australia… Some people here will run a steel mesh panel attached to the rops to prevent this when running a slasher. .or bush hog as you call them.. PS never drill or weld to a rops .. I use radiator hose clamps to attach it….
Throwing items from cutters are serious.. trust me.. had a rock come out of a ride on mower and hit me in the leg … Cut me up pretty bad.. glad It was only a small rock and a ride on… Now if I can see some one mowing … I'm to close… I'm not going to link a picture.. to grafic ..was not nice….
Stay safe y'all
Love from Queensland Australia
You know I live in farm country I grew up in farm country. I grew up working farms. But I don't anymore. Sorry you held up that rock I'd forgotten how big were Boulder they could be. I'll go right out there and look and see a boulder the size of a 4 cylinder engine. But Iraq the size you're holding look to be a third of the size of your head. It's a great reminder that a rock isn't always a piece of three-quarter inch clean! So thanks for the reminder. I went and just mowed was a push mower the yard of a rental house. It doesn't matter how that chunk of concrete block got there but it was probably the size of marble. It came up caught me in the eye kind of where my nose and top of my eyeball socket met. Might go to the eye doctor almost immediately and we got the eye flushed out and looked at and put medicine in it for a couple of weeks. It's been bothering me a little bit recently and that was 2 years ago. It doesn't compare to what this man went through. But some folks who watch your channel this may be a more realistic problem for them. Not everybody's working with the bigger equipment. Even if you are a little rock maybe besides of marble or Rock that you compare to the size of your head because the rock is so big. In any case always find a way to protect yourself. I always wear some kind of glasses when mowing but that day it was 95° hot sweaty and I took them off. So safety first because it may not be a second chance. Thanks for the video. An eye opener reminder.
Most likely, a hydrostatic will still run over you on a downhill even with the motor off. Seatbelts are a must in certain situations. Great video Mike
I’ve been hit by rocks thrown from a manure spreader once or twice. Not very fun 😕
I have a son who is living with me now. He has almost no experience with tractors. He surprised me when he said he was amazed at how many different ways a tractor and implement can kill you. It made me think about how I never take the time to to anything safely. Thanks for these videos and best wishes to Tommy.
He's very lucky
When.I was about 14 I was mowing with massy 135 and a 5 foot 3 point hog. Hit a rock and hit a flint rock and had to have shrapnel dug out the back of my head by my mom. Then back out to finish up.
This did not happen to me, however it was bad. A kid i knew (my freshman year in highschool so it has been more years then i will admit too) was cutting with a tractor in the 40hp range (roughly may have been a bit bigger) on a hill and had a blade brake, sliced threw rear tire and caused the tractor to roll and it rolled a couple times(fairly steep hill) and even with rops and seatbelt on some how still snapped his neck and he did not make it. I still think about that every time i cut my grass as i have some steep hills to cut(all be it not nearly as steep as the one he was cutting)and try to really watch around me, and replace any blade that i question in the slightest. Even knowing that is not a normal situation, and that my tractor has all the safety equipment and i use them i still cant get that out of my mind, to the point if my son or my wife uses the tractor i have drove home the point the seatbelt goes on before the key goes into the tractor, and go over each way to kill the engine multiple times threw the seasons and still will NOT let either of them cut any of the hilly areas of our property. They tell me i am paranoid but i can live with them calling me that, i could NOT live with a freak accident happening to either of them. Maybe i am a little paranoid but i dont want them hurt period.
Reminds me of when the WVDOH just had received new boon mowers, one of our operators was mowing along one of the main roads in the county. The mower picked up a shock absorber in the weeds throwing it about 200 feet and through the windshield of a new Thunderbird destroying the dash. Luckily no one was in the car. Only one of many mishaps with these boom mowers.
I’ve had two mower incidents. Back in the 60s, we gave our collie bones to gnaw on. Dad threw one up with the mower and it broke my finger. About 30 years ago, I was mowing my lawn, and my wife ran out the front door yelling at me at the top of her lungs. She is a normally calm lady, so I thought she had lost her mind. Come to find out, I had thrown a large rock through the front window and it hit her. We all need to be reminded about safety!
They sell helmets
Should you wear a seatbelt if the tractor doesn't have a ROPS? My first guess would be that it would make a roll over worse??
we got an old kuhn tedder that will break and throw tines if you run it to close to the ground in rough terrain, its down right scary, especially if you're on a tractor without a cab, she'll throw them 60' or more and they stick in the ground like a javelin, i can go several hundred hours between breaking them but some older members of my family can't hear or see as good as they used to and break several in one day before realizing it which is even more scary
Good video Mike, one tip, if you have your ROPS down dont wear your seatbelt. If the ROPS is up, wear your seatbelt.
Good talk, thanks Mike!
Glad he's ok. Not that it helps for hay, but that's one big reason I prefer a flail over a rotary mower; flails are much less prone to throw stuff at you. It's not zero percent of course, but much lower.
I didn’t mean to end my previous comment without mentioning that I was casual about wearing safety glasses one day just this summer and a small rock nicked me in the forehead. This was in a shady area among some trees. I was passing through from one section of lawn to another and was too lazy to turn the mower off when riding over dry ground.
Good job
I’m really fortunate here in southeast Pennsylvania in that the land has been cultivated since before 1750 and generations of farmers have cleaned almost all of the rocks out of the fields.
A similar problem is small rocks being thrown by the belly mower on your lawn tractor. They can take out an eye.
I sometimes wear a motorcycle helmet when brush hogging
Thanks, Mike (and Tommy).
I've been a tractor owner for 1 month now.
It's been my practice to fasten my seat belt when I'm on an incline so the ROPS can do its job, but on level ground I don't bother.
That was today.
Tomorrow, I'll be using the seatbelt regardless of the terrain.
Wear a helmet if that paranoid.
I am sure glad he made it, one of the worst pieces of equipment I own for throwing things is my drum mower, one ant hill and flying stuff goes everywhere. A note on the safety switch, If I just turn my Kubota off it will roll, unless I set the parking brake, That is one bad disadvantage of a hydraulic shuttle, I had a new holland the same way, but it had a parking gear you had to be in, if not away she went . So if his tractor is like mine his safety switch may have shut the engine down but it would not have stopped rolling without the park brake set. This is where you have to know your equipment, and the dealer/salesman needs to tell new owners about this carefully.
Sent a sprinkler head 50 feet through the Livingroom window, with just a side discharge push mower, back in the late 70's. Didn't notice until I went in the house and saw a hole in the window (tinting held it together). Since then I'm carful of cutting height and safety guards.
I had a small stump part get thrown from the lawn mower and went through window and landed 10’ inside of the house. The piece went 30’ before hitting the window. Glad my wife was not sitting next to the window which was her normal spot to sit at the time.
Highway mowers are another problem. Ask me how I know.
Thank God Tommy lived to tell the story. And I much appreciate the seat belt reminder, Mike. ROPS and kill switches are mandatory, too. Every single time. Life happens, so be sure to protect yourself and others.