My boss died-- 15 years ago today

[Okrafarmer]

I will always remember January 31, 1997. My boss died in a farming accident. He and his adult nephew, who worked for him, were moving 30 foot aluminum irrigation pipes. Evidently one of them was clogged with mud or some other obstruction. They tipped it up on end to bang it out on a rock. Neither one of them had the presence of mind to realize they were right underneath a high-capacity power line. My boss was killed instantly. His nephew was overcome with shock (possibly received some of the jolt) and had amnesia about the event itself. Even after they knew he had died, it took them a while to figure out what happened, since no one else was around. When the nephew (aged about 28) came to his senses, Mike was lying on the ground unresponsive. Overcome by emotional and probably physical shock, the nephew went for help but still did not know what had happened. At first they thought it was a heart attack. Mike was 37. Then they pieced together what had happened, especially as they examined him. The jolt had done little to alter his appearance, but there was a very small entry and exit wound from the electrical current. The wire was 27 feet overhead. There was a black mark on the irrigation pipe about three feet from the end.

Mike was the manager for the farm owned by the university I attended here in South Carolina. He was happily married, had three great teenage kids, and was well-liked and respected by many people. I was a student at the university and worked on the farm. Mike was always safety-conscious, especially for other people-- always reminding us to wear our helmet when on the four-wheeler, not allowing us to operate dangerous equipment without adequate training or supervision. He was energetic, choleric, a real go-getter. He never asked anyone to do anything he would not do himself. He put in many 16 hour days and never seemed to slow down. Until he stopped, abruptly, 15 years ago.

Be careful out there, guys and girls. Our families would like us to come home.  :-\

[Kansas]

Sorry to hear. A really bad deal. Seems like overhead lines get a lot of people. Guy was telling me about a farmer helping to move a grain bin a short distance down the road. They passed underneath an overhead line. Farmer had a hand on the bin at the time. The line arced down to the bin, killing the farmer instantly.

[Riggs]

Sad to hear, I'm sure many others have fond memories of him also.

[Okrafarmer]

Yes, I mentioned him on my Facebook page yesterday and several of us were reminiscing about him. His death-- and really, his life-- had a profound effect on us students.  :'(

[sandhills]

Sorry to hear about that Okrafarmer, we lost a very close neighbor and two other good men in an accident much the same in 1982.  I'll never forget that night as long as I live, they were helping a good freind finish harvest after he was involved in an auto accident.  All three were moving a grain auger from one bin to another by hand, in the dark, when they hit the powerline, my dad would have been one of them but he had just finished his own harvest that night and was heading down to help them in the morning.  ALWAYS look up folks, there are no second chances.  My folks went over to meet the widow of our neighbor when she got home from work that night so my aunt came out to babysit us kids, the movie Mary Poppins was on the one channel we had, to this day I still hate that movie.

[reride82]

This one reason we put most of our power lines underground in our farm yard. The only lines above ground are the lines above the corrals and to the well which is out in a small pasture. Then the only problem is remembering where they are located if you have to do any dirtwork     

[Corley5]

I ALWAYS look up before tipping a load of firewood anywhere and set up my log landings well away from lines.  I've been told they can arc a good distance on a humid day.  I don't want to find out far they can.

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

Oakrafarmer.....I hardly ever read the Health Topics. But tonight, I'm glad I did. Thank you for posting this story and I am so sorry you lost your boss.
By you posting this, you have probably saved a life by making us all THINK! In fact you have probably saved my life.
I've come close before. I fight forest fires operating a bull dozer in .S.C. So many times I have went to a fire and find out that the fire was started by a tree that has fallen on a power line thus knocking the power line to the ground. The LIVE power line is then hid in the thick brush or hanging very low over head as to where if the dozer came in contact with it.....well......tragedy.
Your story will now refresh my mind has to what can happen if I do not pay attention and be aware of my surroundings.

Thanks and God Bless.
David

[Okrafarmer]

I'm happy to help. What kind of dozer do you use? I operate a JD 350C.

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

When I first started with the S.C. Forestry in 1986, I had a JD 350 C with a straight blade. In 2000 I was issued a DRESSTA (used to be Dresser) TDH 18. The Dressta is the same size as a JD 450. The Dressta has the 4 in 1 blade and lift plow on the back. It has the cage on it.
Now since the EPA has started getting involved, we will be getting CATERPILLARS with the glass cage around me with heat and air. Can't wait for that!

Here is my JD350 C after I turned in over on a fire. I crawled away through the fire with 1 vertebra cracked in 3 places....but I lived!  8)



 

[Okrafarmer]

Wow, that's quite a tumble. Thank God for the cage.

[Taylortractornut]

Okra I almost lost a good friend in a similar farm accident and had another  hurt pretty bad.    My friend was picking  cotton  on his place and to offset a bad year he was picking for others.      He had been to survey another fiedl he had picked before.      He had ridden by and  did a quicky on saturday  Marking all the  power lines with GPS to transfer to the tractors.     THe following Friday he and his little brother and a friend   had finished up and  gone to  the new site.     It was already dark about 9pm.     My friend let his helper take a break from the module builder  to the   Picker with air.    Other friend and younger brother  was on the tractor and Boll buggy  pulled up to the  picker.   My friend was walking to the  picker and buggy to see how it was going  whent the helper   went to dump the  cotton.   


What happened then was they were checking the GPS to see the power lines.    They thought they were all clear.  But what happened was a freak thing.  In the week they had checked the area and marked the power lines a road project had damaged a line and  thhe power company rerouted the lines that week over a corner of the field.      My friend got there to check things out on  his 4 wheeler aabout the time the basket hit the line.    The  Jolt went through the  picker  the boll buggy and off the nose counter weight on the front of the big Deere tractor onto my friends ATV.      My friend and his brother  both had some burns, and my friends heart stopped a minute.        It was all the way arournd freak accident.

I  hit a powerline one time with a 5299 American crane one time with 120 feet of boom.  I was on a TVA  job and   we had to move the old friction crane down to the TN river on the site I was on.     THere was a 3 phase line that ran down the side of the  ROW.     Well the Inspector  didnt want us to run over the precious  vegetation zone.     This zone was a  row of  Crap apple trees and Kudzu.    I mean how  much damage could I do to the Kudzu.    I had to squeeze all my crane in this 40 foot ROW with 120 feet of boom in front of me.        I had poodle head Joe college inspector walking beside me with a camera and tape measure  taking pictures of the poor kudzu  I was tracking on.      IN addition to this I  he had 4 college students working with him inspecting.

I was having to stop every few   yards and tell them to get back and not walk beside me.    One clown was even  ating like he was pushing me.             I had my cable stowed o n frame and we were moving at a whopping  3/4 mile per hour.     I came to a small berm I had to cross and walking over it  one of my crawlers was slipping as I crawled over.    My boom got no more than 12 feet away from the line as I was figting it and it arced.     It burned the cable in half and  I was too afraid to   Look atthe  college students and inspector.      I stopped and lowered the boom to th dirt.     I went back through the cab and house  and out past the  engin and  out the other side to the  other cat walk to see a load of wide eyed college kids and the inspector.      I used his radio to call it in and  decided to walk it on down to the landinge to inspect the boom and  re string the     hoist and  gantry lines.       The rest of the trip the inspector told me to screw the  trees and Kudzu  drive over it. 

Post  THe last dealings with Dressta's I was running a TD15.   It was a smooth running rig  and a good Finishing dozer even with a straight and tilt blade.      Do you know which  Cat you will be getting?   I was disapointed in the  D5 K we rented a few months back when my D5B at work was down.      It really let me down.      The cab was nice but the controls were a bit lacking in comfort.     With the rigid track frame  that the  K series has its really rough.      I backed over a 4by4 dunnage block  with one track.   It was the equivalent of backing over a  RR tie  with the  old D5B.    Also we had trouble with the wussy little air filters.    Cat didnt send ours with a pre cleaner bowl. We had to wrap a stocking over the  air fileter inlet box.       I have a friend that  just got a  D3K  for his private Forestry service wich  he works for.   THey  put in fire lines,    and do tree planting.       He got the package with the blade mounted  hydraulic winch and   lift on the back.        They may even be puttin on multi blade. The  6 way but it will fold back and make a V blade.       I ran the unit and it Didnt come with the  precleaner either.   We may  install this later.