www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-11195393
Horrendously bad luck.
Last edited by: Pugugly on Mon 6 Sep 10 at 16:55
|
Further detail.
A FOUNDER of 70s rock favourites Electric Light Orchestra has been killed after a giant bale of hay tumbled down a hill in Devon and crashed on to his van.
Cellist Mike Edwards, 62, died after the 94-stone (600kg) bale careered down the side of a steep Devonshire field before it smashed through a hedge and on to the road. He died instantly in the accident on Friday afternoon.
Police are now investigating whether the bale may have fallen from a tractor working on farmland next to the A381 in Halwell, near Totnes.
They believe the musician was killed after the loose bale gathered momentum as it rolled down the hill before landing on the front cab of his white van.
He is understood to have swerved into a similar vehicle as he was struck. The second driver was unhurt in the collision.
He was always a bit wierd, and left early in the bands history,
|
Reminds me of an incident when I lived on a farm in south Devon.
My older brothers were playing in snow on top of a hill.
They started a snowball which ran down the hill, gathering pace and snow as it went.
It reached giant proportions, smashed through a hedge and blocked the lane beyond.
Devon County Council had to send out a gang with a JCB digger to clear the road.
|
|
Bet you were popular - I'd have done a runner under those circumstances...! :-)
|
...- I'd have done a runner under those circumstances....
Suspect we did.
It was about 45 years ago, and I can't remember what the, er, feedback, was from parents and the authorities.
I don't imagine the local copper would have given us a leaflet about safe play and the health and safety risk to others.
He might have given us a clip round the ear. :)
|
Curious what makes the news. When Kelly Groucutt - who did duty on bass, vocals and lead silly facial hair during ELO's heyday, so one would think a more newsworthy musician - died last year, I think it made the Birmingham Post but I don't remember hearing about it in the national media.
We walked across a field full of round bales yesterday. I've always liked looking at them and the shadows they cast. It had never occurred to me to think what would happen if one ran away.
|
>> Curious what makes the news. When Kelly Groucutt - who did duty on bass, vocals
>> and lead silly facial hair during ELO's heyday, so one would think a more newsworthy
>> musician - died last year, I think it made the Birmingham Post but I don't
>> remember hearing about it in the national media.
>>
Agree. Kelly was far more 'part of ELO' and raised very little interest. When I saw this headline, I feared it was one of the Jeff Lynne or Roy Wood who was the victim. Must be the nature of the accident that makes the news.
|
...Must be the nature of the accident that makes the news...
A good test of news is: Is it new?
I've not heard of anyone being wiped out by a big bale, so I suspect it is new.
The fact the injured party was a minor somebody rather than a nobody helps it along a bit.
|
|
I'm sure it's a tragedy for his friends and family but it sounds like something out of Spinal Tap.
Last edited by: Chris S on Mon 6 Sep 10 at 12:43
|
|
Truth is often stranger than fiction. If it did fall off a tractor must have been horrific for the farmer.
|
I saw ELO in a car in London once, or at least I think I did.
Triumph Dolomite driving along Acton Lane with three or four big hairy blokes in it.
The car had the reg no: ELO 2.
|
|
good job it didnt hit a rolling stone............
|
As Pugley sed - Horrendously bad luck, I wonder what the odds are of say being killed by a bale o'cotton, I mean hay, and being struck by lightening?
The geezer left ELO c75 to become a Buddhist so perhaps he has now found Nirvana!
Being that I'm (almost) a pasty cruncher, I hear of many accidents involving farm workers and their vehicles,
we'll leave it there :(
|
And next summer we'll see.........
Health & Safety and lot's of farmers with chocks.
Pat
|
|
The Guardian's online news item on this comes with an 'ad by Google' that links to a roadside recovery service. Don't you just love context sensitivity?
|
I was once nearly hit by a falling cow.
I was walking along a lane with a high bank on one side, when suddenly a cow rolled out of the field above, under the wire fence, and landed on its feet about 5 yards ahead of me. It looked as surprised as I was for a few moments, then ambled off.
|
>>I was once nearly hit by a falling cow.<<
I was driving up a moorland narrow lane a few years back and a load of cows came through the hedge,
(and I'm not talking a load of bullocks either)
Why, only recently someone was killed by a Horse while driving on the A30 near Jamaica Inn.
|
|
Friends of my father had thier boat capsized by a drowning cow.
|
There has also been a spate of people killed by cows over the last year or so, I used to rome the open moorland daily when we lived op dar, I've had altercations with bullocks, horses and wild bore, I would always let Milo orf the lead and the critters would go after him whilst I legged it to the nearest hedge,
of course there was no-chance of the critters catching him.
|
>> I've had altercations with bullocks, horses and wild bore, I would always let Milo orf
>> the lead and the critters would go after him
See I told you those Ridgebacks were chicken, That ridge of fur? its a yellow streak yay wide.
Last edited by: Zero on Mon 6 Sep 10 at 15:42
|
>>See I told you those Ridgebacks were chicken,<<
I knows you jest my friend, those Ridgebacks are used to hunt Lions, (Carlyon, Roselyon)
he used to run them bullocks ragged I can tell ya :)
|
...Friends of my father had thier boat capsized by a drowning cow...
If they'd helped the cow on board like they should have done, it wouldn't have felt the need to turn their boat over.
|
|
It was the cows urgent need to climb into the boat that capsized it.
|
My dear old MIL, being driven on a trip in the country by SWMBO and me, once pointed to a field and asked why it was full of shiny black cars, parked all over the place. !
Ted
|
Lets throw in a bit of ELO m- dedicated to BBD
www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFU9HYyMVxQ
Mike Edwards had left the band by then
|
It's quite sad really and is not a subject to take the 'P' out of. A lot of Farmers don't give a stuff about H&S or anyone else for that matter, but like all folk, especially those in business have a 'Duty of Care' to others. Quite frankly I hope whoever is responsible get's the full Monty. If lucky their Insurance Co. picks up the tab. If not I hope they lose their house.
M
|
Farming usually tops the killed at injured and work list on a yearly basis.
And has done since mechanisation came in.
If you applied the strict health and safety rules to it, nothing would get reared or grown.
Last edited by: Zero on Mon 6 Sep 10 at 17:50
|
Fully understand that PU and agree, but looking at the antics of some of them round here (and elsewhere I am sure) then some basic lip service to the obvious wouldn't come a miss.
M
|
I grew up on a couple of mixed farms.
Didn't know what health and safety was, let alone pay any attention to it.
Tractors' brakes were never maintained nor were lights.
Trailers, especially the big ones we only used at haymaking, ran on tyres with the canvas showing.
We had a belt driven circular bench wood saw with a blade the size of a bicycle wheel - it had no guards and the drivebelt from the tractor was just left to flap in the wind.
We regularly clambered on and off loaded trailers, hay ricks and the like - no safety precautions at heights from which a fall could be fatal.
The list goes on, but apart from a lost finger in a milling machine, I don't recall any personal injury accidents in 20-odd years.
|
as pointed out to me today
the kids driving these monster tractors with their 1000hp engines are constantly on the phone to someone
dammed sick of it to be honest so farmers and their boys are not at the top of my like list
|
Farmer near here regularly has people travelling in the digger bucket!
H & S needs to involve use of common sense. If something is moving, keep out of the way. Don't have dangling hair or clothing as they can get into things that are moving. Also if it takes a guard round something to keep people away from it then it is a poor sign that danger can't be assessed without needing guards and warning signs...
Whether farming is dangerous would depend on what the accident rate was per person per hour of exposure to machinery. It could just be that farming uses more machines and for longer so even with the same low chance of accident there are more accidents per year.
Was news item on some woman that was knocked over by a cow and died while herding them so it's not just machinery that can kill.
|
"Mike Edwards had left the band by then"
He's gone to the great band in the mr blue sky
|
|
Yes, sadly he's no longer a Livin Thing
|
|
Yes, It's Over. He might have been safer on the Last Train to London.
|
You might say it happened Out of the Blue
Enough already....
|
If he has a headstone its turn to stone
At his funeral they will be standing in the rain
|
|
That's enough ELO tracks.......Ed. (with apologies to Private Eye)
|
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-20399136
The outcome to the court case - maybe a common sense decision ?
|
ELO member killed in an unlucky accient. - Zero
