accident with hay bales

Miss L Toe

Miss L Toe

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Very sad accident reported today, a lady has been killed in a hay bale accident.
I think this is a reminder how easily things can go wrong.
Health and Safety may seem excessive sometimes, but accidents ( on farms and nowadays in DIY yards), happen frequently even though farmers generally are brought up with large machinery and big bales etc.
My own cousin [26] nearly had a fatality when lifting a big bale off the top layer with a tractor fork, it fell over and nearly topped him.
I know a farmer [age 50] who was run over by a tractor two years ago, now he can't work.
I was very lucky to survive a bull knocking me to the ground when I was a farm student [age 17], the bull had previously been easy to handle.
I can go on and on ... never ever take risks, and always make sure you know where you are going and never reverse without assistance. Do not let children play in a yard. Even small bales can be made in to "dens" which become death traps.
 
I think this was obviously a freak accident tbh. We all handle bales of hay all the time and luckily not many are injured. It sounds like she prob tried to get it from a high stack and it fell on top of her. I really feel for her poor daughter who found her.

You are right though farms and safety are not to be taken lightly.
 
familiarity breeds complacency, friend of mine who is a farm mechanic had a large square bale fall off a trailer onto him while loading hay in a field, broke his pelvis and he's no little chap either, strong as an ox until the accident.
A lot of accidents happen because we do the same routine day in day out and get complacent about our safety, i think we're all guilty of that:o
 
MrsD123 said:
It is most likely to be a big bale, which are ofter heaped one on top of the other, I have seen kids playing on them and also people moving them by pushing, they can easily roll back.
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If you ever bothered to read anything properly you would see from the article it was a small bale.
And a freak accident.
 
Ladybird said:
If you ever bothered to read anything properly you would see from the article it was a small bale.
And a freak accident.
Click to expand...

I'm guilty of using the term "freak" accident but thinking about it, an accident is an accident - nothing freak about it.

My friend's mum was killed by a bale falling on her - I don't care if it was a big one or a small one, the outcome was the same, and if this thread makes us all think about taking that little bit extra care then maybe this sort of accident won't happen to us.
 
If you are unloading a big load it is very easy for a top/high bale to become unstuck, we used to shift thousands of hay and straw bales by hand, loading a trailer 8 rings high. When we were throwing off a load one of our workman was hit on the shoulder by a bale falling off the top of the load, so it does happen and i was the one on the top of the trailer!
 
Then I am sure you are aware that when unloading by hand, there has to be a routine, you don't throw bales down on top of people, and people don't go in to collect a bale if others are being thrown down in to that area.
 
MrsD123 said:
Then I am sure you are aware that when unloading by hand, there has to be a routine, you don't throw bales down on top of people, and people don't go in to collect a bale if others are being thrown down in to that area.
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DOH! hadn't though of that.....of course there has to be a routine BUT accidents do happen, just walking around on top of a load can dislodge/loosen bales. Funnily enough you don't plan for it to happen and in this incident the bloke moved to pick up a bale and a loose one fell........an accident.
 
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