Tractor accident

flembo

Well-known Member
An 88 year old New Hampshire man is in critical condition after being trapped under his mid size Kubota tractor/back hoe. He was thought to have been trapped for 4 to 6 hrs. before being found by his wife. Fire dept. had to use the jaws of life to remove him. Not clear how it happened, he was working in his backyard trenching.
 
Some 88 year old men are more fit and capable than men half their age but the odds are here is he thought he could do something but in reality could not. Basic operating skills in terms of running equipment unfortunately decline as we age. A similar thing happened to a farmer several miles away from who was 80 at the time of his accident. The tractor is one that he owned for decades and one that nobody else ran but him. Best guess that he bumped something getting off and the next thing you know is he was pinned.
 
Some backhoes are addons, which concerns me.
You have to get off the tractor and climb in the hoe..
Good chance there isn't a seat belt on the hoe, and if there was, he may not have used it, no ROP protection.
 
The man who claims he is as good at 80 as he was at 40 is either a marvel of nature, deluded, or wasn't much good at 40. My FIL is one such man. He is 88 and thinks he can do everything he could when he was younger. He does some of the craziest things trying to prove he still can. Last fall he had his loader tractor at the edge of a ravine, dropped one front wheel off, the opposite back wheel in the air. He was walking up to get his other tractor to pull it back. A neighbor had to insist to let him help. He said he had everything under control. We are fortunate that he was not the person in such a news story. Better to admit that you've lost a step and let more capable people take over. Your kids will appreciate it.
 
I'm 70 and can operate equipment as good as ever probably better because I have learned a few things over the years.Running equipment these days is far easier than years ago.
 
TF, I only know you from this forum and have no reason to dispute your claims. I am 68 and also consider myself a very capable operator. My neighbor hired me last fall to run his million dollar combine so I figure that gives me a little cred. I also recognize that my eyesight isn't as good as it used to be, my hearing isn't as good as it used to be, my reaction time isn't as good as it used to be, etc. I compensate by using the wisdom gained from experience as you talked about. We become the most dangerous when we don't recognize or admit our limitations. There are many in that category. And that is when most accidents happen.
 
Probably a lot more accidents happen with men in there 40s than men in there 80s while operating equipment, cause there really arent as many 80 year olds operating equipment. I knew a fella in his 40s that was killed using his backhoe a few years ago. The machine was running and he was on the ground behind it. Reach in the open back window to grab a coat or something, and what he had grabbed got caught on the lever that swung the boom. The boom came around and crushed him against the machine. He called 911 with his cell phone, but by the time help arrived, it was too late. Age isnt always a factor is what I am trying to say.
 
Good morning, all posters on this thread: I am also one of the OLD folks {over 80 years}; I use my antique tractors to mow my yard and my front ditch. Things that used to be easy are getting harder. Something simple like holding the clutch down is getting harder for me! A sudden unexpected happening may get me in trouble, so I need to always think ahead.

I don't want to spend my last days with a disability caused by a tractor I couldn't control.

Just saying....

Dennis M. in W. Tenn.
 
Local guy (94) was still hauling grain to town to the elevator last fall harvest. I was hauling grain (for somebody else) to the same elevator. I witnessed some of his driving, and it was quite SCARY!

Seen him round a corner in a single axle tractor/trailer, and the wheels on the tractor went off the edge of pavement on the right hand side. Plenty of room, State highway going both ways, no other traffic in his way.
Seen him turn sharp at the elevator with the same rig on several occasions. Turn so sharp the rear axles on the trailer were turning on a dime.
He was gonna try to turn the same rig around inside a bunker the elevator was filling. Employee stopped him. Made him back out of there. That took several attempts. All he had to do, was back straight up. Nothing behind him. Not even the other trucks waiting to dump.
Seen him put the right side outer dual on a straight truck, up on the side rail (heavy pipe) on the side of the scale. Drove off the end of the scale like that. Taking out a reflective fiberglass stick the elevator put in the ground marking the 4 corners of the scale.
And, to top all of that off, he drove an empty truck in to dump one time. He made it all the way to the probe, and was told to go back home. His boy running the combine seen him take off with the empty truck, called the elevator and told them not to weigh him when he got there, just send him back home.

And this guy has the (well, I'd call it stupidity) to brag about still hauling grain at 94 when sitting around the coffee table at the coffee shop in town.

They did a wright up in the county paper the year before, about him still hauling at 93. I don't think anyone involved in doing that article, had any idea about his driving capabilities.

Accidents can happen to anyone. And sometimes the elderly don't know when to hang it up. Not sure which one is the case in your story with the backhoe guy. Perhaps both, I don't know. I don't know the guy either.
 
A neighbor friend was using a utility tractor working on fence. His adult daughter was helping as her job had shut down due to the recent pandemic. As my 80 year old friend dismounted the tractor, his foot caught the gear shift putting the tractor in forward gear, the result of catching his foot caused him to fall off the tractor which then rolled over his leg. No broken bones but it disabled him for several months while the leg healed. Had his daughter NOT been there to summon help it could have ended much worse. Murphy is not far away at any given moment. gobble
 
Everyone ages at a different rate.

My mom drove her own car competently until she was 92, and then decided herself to call it quits. My dad, on the other hand, probably shouldn't have driven on a public road much after age 60.

It's usually the ones who insist they have no impairment who ARE impaired.
 
There is so much wrong with what is likely going on with the 94 year old. Nobody likes to be told when their time is up but it is time to pull that guy's license. He is going to hurt or kill someone and a lot of it is due to his perceived infallibility. Nothing more dangerous than a person who thinks that they never make mistakes or has something to prove. Nobody says anything to this 94 year old because he probably still holds all his assets tight. He'll probably lose everything of worth due to a screw up which is made worse because his poor judgement will cost others including the son.
 
That's pretty dead on with this guy.

His boy pretty much took over the farming on an operational stand point. But the old guy, still owns most of the assets (ground). And there is alot of money there too. On 2 different occasions, he gave each one of his kids (4), a large chunk of cash for Christmas.

So, on top of what you just said, there is a little bit of the kids not wanting to make the old fart mad.
 
The aged have an advantage over the young, it's called experience. The young have the advantage of faster reaction time, but usually experience will outweigh reaction time.
 
Your right about that my mom drove her car until her late 80s no problem while my dad started making mistakes when driving and operating equipment in his early 60s.I am 60 now and drive and operate better than I ever have but I cant do what I did physically even 5 years ago
 
Was at the ER once for stitches when I left my other hand in the way while cutting something & just had to laugh when the doc says "we usually see injuries like this on younger men..."

I was a heavy equipment operator for 35 years & have seen my share of accidents. I tend to look for reasons [i:26a697fa19]not[/i:26a697fa19] to do something. My spidey sense kicks in operating my hoptoe. There's no bypass/kill valve so the unit is live if the engine's running. One wrong move getting on & off and you could be toast.
 
My father-in-law needed to be off of the highway - his driving was really spooky. He resisted all of our efforts to get him to stop driving. We talked to his doctor, and the doctor told him he had to quit. The father-in-law just said ok and never drove again, but he was mad at the doctor for the rest of his life.
 
(quoted from post at 10:00:55 05/19/22) Local guy (94) was still hauling grain to town to the elevator last fall harvest. I was hauling grain (for somebody else) to the same elevator. I witnessed some of his driving, and it was quite SCARY!....

Sorry but at 88 or 94 either one you could keel over DRT (dead, right there) at any moment. Think of the people meeting you on the roadway and how your survivors would feel if you killed someone by selfishly insisting on operating a vehicle at that age.
 

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