Posted on 09/09/2015 4:37:46 PM PDT by nickcarraway
One man was killed and another was injured Wednesday morning after being buried under 1,300 pounds of hay at a farm in the West Valley, according to the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office.
The accident happened around 9 a.m. at a farm located near Harquahala Valley and Courthouse roads.
Officer Christopher Hegstrom said four men were independently contracted to remove a large tarp that was placed over a stack of hay bales measuring approximately eight bales high, eight bales deep and 15 bales long.
While removing the cover, the front bales tumbled over and one man was crushed underneath the pile, Hegstrom said.
The other man received minor injuries while trying to get out of the way.
not your average size hay bales
Headline doesn’t mention they were truck-sized bales.
Goes to show you, anything can kill. In the 1990s, I used to read a news article to my students about a man crushed to death beneath racks of Nutty Buddies.
Those big bales are 500 pounders. Just one of ‘em could ruin your whole day.
I believe those bales are 1300lbs each.
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Those monster bales are the new normal in California.
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Officer Christopher Hegstrom said four men were independently contracted to remove a large tarp that was placed over a stack of hay bales measuring approximately eight bales high, eight bales deep and 15 bales long.
Also doesn’t mention these “independent contractors were illegal aliens. I can guarantee it.
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Even the old style bales would have probably killed him if they were stacked that high.
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There is always a way to do something like this safely.
With bales that large, would it make sense to use a pair of helicopters? Or would that be just too expensive and tedious to set up?
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Judging by the pickup and trailer they had, I’d say they were not likely illegals.
That’s close to $60,000 worth of hardware there.
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I wonder Nutty Buddies.
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Ford builds a rig to transport and handle those bales, and it is just about the only way to do it.
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Not a solution. Way, way too expensive and difficult.
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500 pounds dry, but when fresh bundled, possibly close to 600.
Four of them are all that the delivery rig can carry when they are green.
I had a friend who had one of these sized bales fall over on him. He was severely injured.
These are not the 65 pound small bales, these are over 1000 lb each.
Big bales have been around for several years. Thats how they bale hay for the large dairy farms. Depending on the type of hay they can go 900 to 1900 (grass or alfalfa). Takes special equipment to stack/unstack. I always stand way back when buying from the stack and loading my truck.
I feed several horses by the big bale. Others by small bales. Small bale stacks (16ft tall) can kill just as easy.
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