Near Abergavenny, Monmouthshire, UK in the 1940's a farmer driving a Fordson Standard tractor stopped to clear barbed wire which had got stuck on his front wheel.

The Fordson was a simple machine, effectively a towing device, with a 'crash' gearbox having three forward gears and one reverse, and a foot operated clutch. The clutch pedal also served to operate the brake - pressing it half way down operated the clutch and let the operator change gear, and pressing it fully down stopped the tractor. There was no handbrake on this model - just a hook on the floorboard which you looped over the brake pedal when it got to its lowest point. Simple but effective, just as Henry Ford intended.

The story is that the farmer got barbed wire caught on his front tyre, applied the brake, put the hook over the brake lever and got off to untangle the wire, leaving the tractor running and in second gear. This was common practice with these tractors as older ones were hard to get in gear, and once started you didn't switch one off without due cause - they started with a handle and could be a bind to restart when they were hot if they had only been stopped for a few minutes.

As he untangled the wire, the hook pulled out of the floor due to corrosion, the clutch/brake lever sprang up and the tractor pinned him against the ground, killing him instantly. One of my uncle's friends helped recover his body from the field on a gate.

The story was duly told to a generation of farmers sons to get us out of the lazy habit of getting off these tractors without putting them in neutral first in case we too qualified for a Darwin Award! I almost always did.........

Submitted on 02/10/2006

Submitted by: Thomas John Davies
Reference: none.

Copyright © 2006 DarwinAwards.com

James said:
Maybe Toss: Too Common
Thanks for submitting, Thomas. Unfortunately, people being run over by their own vehicles for ANY reason is too common, and it would take spectacular Darwinian stupidity in such a case to merit an award. Unfortunately, mere laziness (as seems to be the case here) isn't QUITE stupid enough! :-)

Jack said:
Neutral: Personal Account
I disagree. It seems as there was a combination of mishaps (rather than laziness) that caused the accident. Not good enough for a DA, but perhaps good enough for a Personal Account...

Jorge said:
Neutral: Personal Account

Tracy said:
Neutral: Personal Account
The combination makes me want to give it a PA

Greg said:
Maybe Toss: Other
Since this kind of thing was common practice, I'm not sure this was stupid enough for a DA or PA. The corrosion is unfortunate and leaving the tractor in gear was dumb, but how dumb is it if that's how you were taught to use the machine? Not dumb at all, IMHO. Good story though. (Coincidentally, I learned to drive on an old Ferguson TE20, AKA "Little Gray" - fairly primative, but not quite as simple as the Fordson!)

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