Yesterday on Friday October 28, 2005, a 15 year old kid driving a John Deere 740 Classic Loader tractor tried to cross the BNSF Beardstown sub track here in Central Illinois, at the little village of Franklin and ran smack into two northwest bound Ex-BN Furx SD40-2s hauling Herzog cars. The train hit the tractor from the front and overturned, and it took half a mile for the engines to slow down to a stop. According to the train crew while listening to BNSF’s radio frequency on my scanner, the kid, now identified as a 15 year old, suffered severe head injuries and had to be transported by ambulance to the hospital in Jacksonville then, according to today’s local newspaper story, flown to a larger hospital in Springfield, IL by helicopter. Today’s local newspaper in Jacksonville, IL states that immediately before the kid on the tractor tried to cross the tracks while the lights were flashing, a car driven by somebody else crossed in the opposite direction, so the kid decided to cross too, when the train collided with the tractor. These type of crossing accidents rarely, hardly ever, happen around this area on the BNSF tracks going southeast of Beardstown, but I suppose some people never learn. Not nearly as bad as crossing accidents on the Norfolk Southern tracks between Decatur, IL and Hannibal, MO, I suppose.
Dumb kid. On a farm tractor on a fine day and in a hurry too. Oh well.
Monkey see car cross, monkey tries same thing. I only hope that farmer who owns the tractor has the ability to maintain his crops after losing a valuable peice of equiptment.
Prayers for the young man, his family, his friends and the train crew.
Farm tractors may have become safer since I drove one in central Illinois when I was 15. This one looks like it at least had overhead protection.
I was working on the ground with a retired farmer on a tractor. I wore a hard hat. He wouldn’t. He wore the straw hat he’d worn all his life while working. We were working for the Villiage of Manito and he was driving an old Ford tractor with a front end loader. We were trying to remove an old billboard for a store that had gone out of business by lifting it out of the ground with the loader.
He got it out of the ground just fine, then the entire sign fell on top of him hitting him in the head and knocking him out. Now the tractor had a hand throttle so it just kept going. I rember trying to reach in there from the ground trying to turn off the ignition with him out cold, the tractor moving and the sign on top of us.
He started to come to and I kept saying “Elmer, turn off the tractor” until he did it. He died a few months latter. I was told he never recovered from the head injury.
An acquaintence of mine, who is now a minister in Forest City, IL was driving a farm tractor with another teenager riding on the fender. The rider fell off forward and was run over. The rider died right then and there.
Farm equipment is probably less dangerous than it was 40 years ago, But it’s still operated by 15 year old kids.
I wi***hat people would learn, it’s always so sad. If only people knew how many people died this way, maybe it wouldn’t happen so often, but I suppose that won’t happen anytime soon…
Matthew
My prayers go out to the family and friends of the young man injured. I’m sure from this accident his folks can rest assure that he won’t be attempting to cross another grade crossing when a train is comming ever again. It is a shame some people really don’t know what strenght, and power trains have. Many people underestimate how much damage a train can really cause to any type of motor vehicle. I’m sure the kid though he could take his what he could take his strong 20 ton tractor accross the tracks while the train was comming because he must of figured that the strenght of the tractor will protect him, he also might of though that the train crew would see him in time to stop, lastly he might of thought that he could beat the train. Most people think that when they go around the gates or rush infront of the train. Hopefully, this young man learned his lesson.
Farming is a very dangerous occupation. Then throw in the fact the operator was only 15. He probably had been operating tractors half his life, but maybe he wanted to get home in time to (fill in the blank).
My best friend’s mom died when a tractor overturned and crushed her in a hog lot. He came home from school and found the hogs … oh well, I wont fini***he sentence. In someways, 30 years later, I still dont think he fully recovered.
OH boy now we got little kids trying to beat trains to crossing like I have said before some people still dont learn on how dangerous railroad crossings are and how long it can take for a train to stop and from what the pictures showed the tractor was totalled from the accident and now the kid is laying in a hospital with serve head injureys. I still think that states should really crack down on people that try to run railroad crossings by having a local cop sheriff or even a state trooper sit at a crossing that seems to have alot of accidents and start to ticket people and if that happens then maybe people would get smarter when they come around train tracks
Let’s see… 15 year old kid driving a big-*** John Deere tractor, waits at crossing for train, sees another car going around the gates, he decides he can’t wait either, and goes around and gets whacked by the train. and gets taken to the hospital with head injuries… I think we almost had a Darwin Award on our hands.[:(!]
Hell YES!! The poor kid was only 15, but let’s cut him some slack, give him a break. If he’s got severe head injuries, he might never walk again, let alone drive a tractor. And I am sure there are a few of us who have made mistakes like this and yet still lived to regret it!!![banghead]
Lots of 15 year olds drive tractors, and yes, they are much safer than they were in 1960, but not much more so than they were in 1970. About that time was whhen the full ROPS (roll over protection system) cam around. Any structure made to support a 20,000 pound vehicle rolling over is going to offer a lot of protection in any situation.
BTW: I’m 17 and have been driving tractors on the road since I was 9.
i’ve been on a tractor since i could reach the pedals too. i can attest to the need for the ROPS as i laid one over a couple years ago. it was funny at the time but a little un-nerving when it sunk in. fortunately i’m alive and well, no harm done to me or the tractor.
We are blaming the young man, the tractor, the other driver, possibly even the sun - but did his parents ever discuss with him the responsibilities of train tracks and driving any form of transportation? Did Dad possibly drive over those same tracks and either set the example of going around the gates or fail to explain how dangerous the situation could be?
I grew up in a farming community and I have known a couple of folks who managed to turn tractors over on themselves. I knew one guy who retired from the ATSF and, about four months later, turned his tractor over and died, pinned underneath. What irony! Somebody who worked as a switchman for the RR for all those years and had warned those of us in the plant about how dangerous the railcars were, and then he died under his own tractor after he had retired.
Ive seen a few rollovers, but the only tractor death I ever saw was a guy pulling a pole out of a gravel lot. Only problem he made was hooking the chain to the rear at a higher level than the axle.
Let out the clutch and the rear wheels stay in place with the whole front of the tractor lifts and rotates around the axle. Crushed instantly.
this just goes to show the stupidness at grade crossings. This kid was stupid enough to attempt moving a tractor across the tracks. They are slow moving objects. i cannot belive this, again from someone this age, though.
Also the damge is amazing on the tractor. It looks like it has been through a tornado. Just shows the power of these trains
