WOW!!! Hell of a ride.

big tee

Well-known Member
Saw this and thought I would share-nobody got killed. Semi ran the combine off the bridge.---Tee
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Wow!

Hard to believe that the combine operator survived.

Someone needs to take a close look at the semi drivers log book (and blood).

Dean
 
Both drivers better be in church this morning!!!! It is amazing that no one was seriously hurt.


Happened on Highway 24, near Kaw Valley Road ,TOPEKA, Kansas.
 
Obviously there's times you can't be courteous with farm equipment and wait for every vegicle to clear, or you'd never get to where your going. However, I'll bet that semi was in his own lane. Everyone is legally entitled to safe travel in their own lane, and I'm just gonna go out on a limb here and say that the combine was wider than his lane. Alrighty, let me have it.
 
I am thinking RBoots has this one right. I am pro agriculture but that doesn't make unsafe moving of machinery ok. A few days ago I waited at the end of my driveway for a large tractor to pass. He was running right down the middle of the road. The outside edge of the duals where about a foot from the edge of the blacktop on each side. Not a problem to wait and let it pass. If I had met him on some sections of the road that has a steep drop off into the ditch I don't know where I would go. There are also some blind curves on the road that would have made meeting him a pretty quick reaction. He was also moving along pretty fast. I am guessing about 30 mph.
 
Looks like a divided Highway. The semi was more than likely going faster than the combine so being in his own lane may not have anything to do with it. Right or wrong you still have to have your vehicle under control. Bet the semi driver gets the ticket.
 
The Kansas Highway Patrol late Friday identified the combine’s driver as Andrew J. Voegeli, 25, of Tecumseh. According to the patrol’s online crash log, the combine and the semi hauling a grain trailer were westbound when the semi rear-ended the combine, which was using both lanes.
 
Amen to that!!,.. i will google it maybe later to see if i can find the location ,m HOWdid ?, Or WHY did this Happen ? ,..it looks like a 4 lane with 2 matchin bridges . 2 lanes runnin in same direction ...Loox like to me overtaking the wide combine on long bridge was too much for the semi driver to endure ,..this equipment is made too wide ,.. aint the farmers fault , Except HIS EZCORT SHOULD HAD BLOKT ALL POSSIBLE PASSING , and if the combine was not escorted ,. shame on the combine ,. however common sense should prevail in court . this is one way to fix stupid ,. luckily everyone survived and mite be more careful nect time .. these combines with duals will take up 14 feet or more ,.. loox like the semi saw a 10 ft opening and went for it ,.. upon seeing this fool coming around !!!the combine operator panic oversteered to his rite , bumped the rite rail! , bounced all that weight back into the passing truk! and disembowed the combine tire ! , consequently tossing the semi into the left rail ! and possibly somersaulted !the combine head over hills!past the semi when the truk lokt his brakes up at the OHShytmoment !!!!,. the combine ende up in the creek bed , with all of the weight momentum , the combine being heavier in the front, caused it to become abouncing ball ,..
 
In that case, how do you miss seeing a
combine taking up both lanes of the same
bridge you're on?
 
Bingo.

From available evidence, the semi driver rear ended the combine on a bridge.

From available evidence, the semi driver is clearly at fault. One must maintain control of one's vehicle at all times.

Semi drivers do not like to slow down but this one should have done so in this case.

Dean
 
Did the combine have an escort vehicle or a spotter in another vehicle? A four lane divided highway is a terrible place for un-escorted farm equipment.
 

Friday I was on a secondary road with a loaded triaxle, when I suddenly put it all together that I was looking at two vehicles coming at me, one in each lane. The one in my lane was a young woman with a loaded stroller. In the other lane was an SUV. I quickly slowed down and when it became apparent that the young mom was not moving over for me, I came to a stop. The SUV stopped a little way back as well, so I pulled around the stroller and went on my way. Those stroller drivers know that they always have the right of way, and I don't worry about giving it to them, even though sometimes they appear to be a little brassy.
 
Since the semi driver wa s hauling corn it's likely he was another farmer, likely hauling without a log book. Very likely hauling after a week of long hours running both a truck and combine.
 
Log Book? In Virginia a farm truck can go 75 miles from the farm without having state issued tags much less a log book.Only need to ID the vehicle as FARM USE and be on farm business
like hauling grain,hay etc etc.
 
No, but hours of service does. If he has been harvesting round the clock for days it would explain not seeing a combine in front of him.
 
I could see the name on the truck door "Gantz Farms" Looked that up and it's owned by Neil Gantz, beef farmer from a few miles east of Perry. KS

So thankful the combine driver wasn't killed. The satellite view of the crash area sure looks like it would be a heavy traffic and very dangerous place to drive a combine or any slow moving vehicle.

One of the reports said combine operator not wearing seat belt. Do modern combines even have seat belts? I have never paid attention as the last combine I drove was in 1962, a cab-less JD 55.
 
I am not familiar with, nor have I ever been to that part of Kansas, but from living inan area in Missouri that is on the edge of the priarie, I do know there are many places where a combine, etc. has no choice but use highway bridges to get from one farm, or even one filed, to another.
 
(quoted from post at 10:33:59 10/22/17) Looks like a divided Highway. The semi was more than likely going faster than the combine so being in his own lane may not have anything to do with it. Right or wrong you still have to have your vehicle under control. Bet the semi driver gets the ticket.


HUH? :?:
 
(quoted from post at 11:30:17 10/22/17) What is a "loaded stroller", a minivan?
baby buggy with payload, and I'm sorry but such a thing has no business in traffic. Even if the law says peds have right-of-way, Mom or sitter or whoever should have better sense. 'cuz you can't expect baby to.
 
(quoted from post at 11:30:17 10/22/17) What is a "loaded stroller", a minivan?

A stroller is what they put kids in and walk behind pushing it. A loaded one is one with a little kid in it.
 

The only way you are going to be safe crossing a long bridge with a combine is if you have a patrol car with flashing lights sitting a half mine ahead or in this case behind the combine, with lights flashing, another patrol car at the 1/4 mile mark and another one right behind the machine. One time I was blocking a long bridge for a combine that was coming. I was in a crew cab pickup sitting sideways in the roadway in a 35 mph zone and a woman drove around the front of my pickup, almost hitting the bridge and drove onto the bridge only to find herself facing a combine. She just sat there so the combine driver folded up the ladder so she could squeak by. I'm not getting going about all the rest of the events I have had trying to slow traffic down for a combine coming through a bridge.

The way it looks this truck driver just wasn't paying attention. It could have been temporary help hired for the harvest. Around here at the beginning of harvest I see the non-professional farmer semi drivers driving like they haven't been behind the wheel for years, swinging way over wide for corners, dropping the rear tandems in the ditch on corners, missing the scale at the elevator, trying to take off with the brakes set and the list goes on . By the end of harvest they are doing pretty well but for the first week it's like amateur hour.
 
Thank you. I was thinking it was be slang for a type of vehicle, not an actual pedestrian. I would be surprised by someone pushing a stroller along a highway too.
 
After thinking about it, it is very common to see large combines and other oversized equipment moved down the road on semi trailers. On some roads that is a daily sight. They usually are moving at traffic speeds taking up a wide lane, but they are almost never stopped or moving slowly while blocking the entire roadway in 55 to 75 MPH traffic.
 
See the size of the creek/river that they are crossing? Not much water but a massive cut that runs full once in the while. Lots of times the major highways are the only bridges that cross things like that. The Kansas River cuts through my county (west of this crash - really just a big creek). There are only 4 bridges that cross it, and only three of them that can handle something like this combine or the loaded semi.

If it was a farmer hauling local no log book is required - not that a log book makes a person more alert to the road.
 

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