Death Inc

(http://i52.tinypic.com/20t4big.jpg)click for big (http://i52.tinypic.com/20t4big.jpg)


Basically the driver, 18-19 years old, had just dumped his load of cane and was going back to the paddock, when he managed to drive into the drain at about a 45 degree angle. He was texting at the time, and landed with the cabin door in the mud. He had to kick the glass out to escape.

We had to get fire brigade out to clean up the spilled oil and diesel, plus two cranes to fish him out. The tractor is written off, all the wires were burnt out by the salt water in the drain. The electronics are fucked. When they got it out and tried to start it smoke poured out of the dashboard.

Total cost of cleanup was over $8000 plus the tractor is over a hundred thousand.
This all happened on my parent's property. Father was somewhat unamused.

moral of the story - don't text while driving especially if you operate heavy machinery for a living

Well it should solve his 'operating heavy equipment for a living' issue. I know I'd never hire him again.

hope its insured

waiting on the call back from the insurance mob. They were supposed to call today but that didn't happen.
The kids covered by workcover as well.
Not sure if they'll get him back to drive again but I wouldn't be surprised if they did. Wrecking stuff is pretty par for the course for these blokes. This is a pretty good effort though.

Also, if you ever drive past a crew of these blokes in the field, if you happen to have a radio that can pick up their conversation on the two-way, try and dial in- I guarantee that you have never heard so many curse words in a single sentence. If you thought sailors and truckies were bad, harvesting crews put them to shame. These guys have a severely limited vocabulary.

It's a nice tractor btw... I like the treads instead of wheels.

if your family every dumps a set of tractor tracks let me know, i have a long term goal of building my own mini paintball tank.

lol the tracks are a contentious issue. They cost over $10,000 to replace each side.

They went from wheels to metal tracks to minimise damage to the paddocks from ground pressure. Unfortunately the metal tracks were even more expensive and they totally fucked the headlands when the tractors turned around.

They went to the rubber tracks to try and get it slightly cheaper, unfortunately the rubber wears out surprisingly quickly so they probably end up even more expensive in the long run because they have to replace them more often.

I think they are going to go back to wheels.

That would of been good to know a few weeks ago - my dad is a diesel mechanic and only recently swapped out some bobcat tracks. Would that of been the right size for a mini tanks ?

nice. I remember talking to a guy that worked in coal mine, he loved that he could wreck a million dollar machine and they would say, are you ok, then give him a new one.

How big is your parents property Donut?

not sure it's just an idea as yet

About 500 acres all up  - although only about 120 or so of that officially belongs to my dad, its kind of a joint property between my dad, my grandfather and his two brothers (my uncles). It's all basically the one property though.

Here's a pic

(http://i54.tinypic.com/v4bc4x.jpg)
click for big (http://i54.tinypic.com/v4bc4x.jpg)


Our property is basically all the land on the flat part, we also own the side of the hill that's facing us towards the top of the picture. Used to run cattle there about 10 years ago but its an overgrown jungle up there now. I'm hoping to build a dirt bike track there soon :)

The wide canal you see on the left is where the accident happened, right near the clearing halfway up the page. Basically he dumped his load of cane into one of the bins there, and drove straight ahead at about a 30 degree angle to the drain - went straight over the edge.