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 | TomG
Join Date: Feb 2002 Posts: 5406 Upper Ottawa Valley 
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2001-08-21 31130
We don't get the news every day here. Last week there was an article in the paper about a death resulting from a tractor accident in Ottawa, Canada. Not many details were in the article, and I'm wondering what happened. The situation was that a tractor slid down a 3-meter grassy hill and overturned into a golf course pond. The operator was killed. The cause of death doesn't alter the tragedy, but the article said it wasn't known if the operator had a heart attack, drowned or was crushed. A photograph that accompanied the article showed the bottom of the tractor. Flotation tires and the bottom of the ROPS were visible. If drowning was the cause of death, it my be one of those rare cases where seat belts contributed to the accident. No matter what the cause, it is reason to take extra precautions when operating around water.
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 | Art White
Join Date: Jan 2000 Posts: 6898 Waterville New York
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2001-08-21 31137
Over the years there have been many discussions in the ag field of the merits of the rollbars and seat belts. Conclusions that I have, if there is a rollbar you definitly are safer with the seatbelt fastened. I've seen it go both ways but the operator is safer with both. The manufacturers do care about the safety of the operators just as the dealers do but there are all kinds of different circumstances such as this one that Tom described that make it hard to guarentee the outcomes of a roll over. ....
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 | Murf
Join Date: Dec 1999 Posts: 7249 Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada
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2001-08-21 31139
Tom, you are correct that we must never let our gaurd down, especially where equipment and water meet. I am sorry to report that the facts are correct, an employee of the golf course was lost in a tragic freak accident. I had an employee in the area who met one of the employees at a dealership while getting parts. While he had been instructed not discuss specifics of the incident since it is currently being investigated by the Ministry of Labour as well as the Police, he was able to relate that the individual killed was NOT an inexperienced operator of that tractor, and was doing something which they had done literally every day for years when it happened. It is felt that the cause was fresh dew on a grassy slope combined with rock-hard soil caused by the extreme drought situations locally, resulting in tires which could not penetrate the soil and therefore grip the slope, the result was a tractor which slid uncontrollably (and too fast to escape from) to the edge of the pond where it dropped over the edge of the bank and rolled over into the water pinning the operator. It was just one of those once in a billion flukes, a true accident. This does not, unfortunately, change the fact that a person lost their life and left a family behind. Please friends, BE CAREFUL. Best of luck. ....
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| Murf
Join Date: Dec 1999 Posts: 7249 Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada
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2001-08-30 31424
Friends, just as a follow-up to the previous post, I cannot emphasize strongly enough how suddenly a routine task with a tractor can turn dangerous. For those interested please click on the link for the full story as reported in the local newspaper. ....
Link: Ottawa Citizen Accident Report
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| MarkS
Join Date: Posts: 1 
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2001-08-30 31431
Makes a guy think doesn't it. I know I am always very cautions when mowing around my lake. There have been several occasions when I will not mow it because of dew on the grass. This is from a similar incident, to the tragic story, when my tractor slid almost 90deg before it finally caught traction. And this happend on a hillside I had been mowing for several years. So needless to say I felt it was a safe palce to mow. It always seems the things we never expect get us. BE CAREFUL! ....
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