With the large amount of farming that is done here in Texas it should come as no surprise that farm equipment accidents and wrongful deaths happen with more regularity than one might at first believe. There are multiple causes for this including the employee or farmer inexperience and/or improper training, equipment malfunction and simple negligence.
Recent fatalities around the country (that could just as easily have happened right here in our own backyard) include the death of a farmer who was working alone when he became pinned between two pieces of farm equipment and was unable to extricate himself. Consider the following reported incidents.
In a nearby state a farmer initially working with his wife to load grain into their silo entered the silo to unstop the auger. Meanwhile, his wife left to attend to other chores and when she returned she found her husband had been accidentally suffocated when the flow of the grain could not be stopped.
In a third and final incident a farmer in upstate New York entered a tank trailer on a dairy farm and died when he was overcome by methane fumes.
Because farm machinery and equipment is so sophisticated today - every safety organization now firmly advises that no person be left working alone or undertake a task without a partner. As these stories show it takes only a moment for a person to lose the ability to handle a situation on their own. (In a word, it's not your grandmother's farm anymore).
Greg Baumgartner is a Texas accident lawyer and the founder of the Baumgartner law firm, which is dedicated to helping injury victims seek civil justice. For a free no obligation consultation with a personal injury lawyer in Texas call the Baumgartner firm.
