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Farming Accident Scenario: "NO SIGNAL"
Here is a fabricated story of a farm accident and the inability to deal with it effectively in the 21st Century!
Little Johnny, 14 years old is helping out on his small family farm. This year
he was promoted to driving a rice cart because the regular hired hand fell sick
and was unable to work. His Dad, taught him well about safety around the
equipment, but boys will be boys. They think they are invincible. Their
sometimes reckless and defiant when needing to ask for help. Dad was across the
field cutting rice. Grandpa was alternately running 2 trucks to the bins.
Johnny, would carry the rice from the combine to the truck that was parked and
transfer the rice to the empty truck while Grandpa would drive the full rice
truck to the bins for storage. Johnny grabs his cell phone and calls for Granpa
to bring him something to drink back. The cell phone dispay read "No Service".
Dad kept a watchful eye on Johnny as he would make his way back and forth across
the field carrying his cart load of rice. In one section of the field red-rice
had begun to take hold and it would prevent the rice from flowing freely from
the hoppers. In the cart it would stick to the sidewalls of the cart. Johnny
would hammer the sides to vibrate it loose and perform all the tricks that Dad
showed him. He knew that with one slip up he could get caught in the auger
and it would chew is leg and continue to feed his body inch by inch into the
turning auger.
This particular load was quite difficult so he got off his tractor, climbed onto the edge of the cart and with his shovel began to push the rice down into the bottom of the cart so the auger could transfer it over to the truck.
His Dad immediately saw what was going on and saw the danger from across the field, and despite repeated warnings beforehand, Johnny decided to take a chance. Dad reached for his cell phone knowing Johnny always had his on. He was calling Johnny to give him an ass-chewing of a lifetime. The display read....."NO SERVICE". Dad disengaged the cutter and put the combine in high gear, and began screaming at Johnny, his voice seemed to be drowned out by the noise of the equipment and the sound of his own heartbeat.
Johnny disappeared into the cart, with the PTO engaged and the auger running. The Dad could see the rice stopped flowing and he could see puffs of smoke coming from the tractor's stack that indicated the tractor was straining, to turn it's PTO. He knew that time was of the essence. He called 911 on his cell phone but the display read....."NO SERVICE". The proposed cell phone tower site behind Butchies Grocery that would have provided cell service for several fields in the area, never came to pass. In fact every proposed cell phone tower proposed was turned down because the demands of the Mosquito Abatement District and The Jeff Davis Parish Police Jury fought the idea for safety reasons. The cell phone companies no longer pursued new tower construction because of the costs associated with over zealous compliance issues.
He kept trying desperately on his cell
phone he was still some distance from the cart. He wanted to get in touch with
911 and have "Air Med" en-route. The local fire station at Raymond was not far
away and was his only hope. But, he had no cell phone service. The hospital was
almost 20 minutes away. He began calculating how long it would take him to get
Johnny out of the field with life threatening injuries, to a hospital that could
save him. The response time was frightening. No way to call for help. No way to
reduce the response time. Dad was on his own.
Dad throws the combine in neutral and leaps off the combine and injur's his
ankle. He ignores the pain and runs full stride through the cut rice stubble for
the tractor and cart. He is screaming for Johnny at the top of his lungs but
gets no reply.
He jumps up on the tractor and kills the engine and continues to scream with tears and panic in his voice, realizing the worst. Still "No Signal" on his cell phone. As the sound of the engine winds down he hears Johnny and soon see's his head pop up and he says, "Hey Dad, I messed up Grandpa's good shovel. I, I, I, was pushing the rice down and my shovel fell out of my hand and it got caught in the auger. I think the safety pin for the PTO sheared off again like the other day when we had to fix it. The auger quit turning so I climbed down there to pull it out. I tried pulling it out but I can't get it out".
This time the story did not end in tragedy! What will be Curt Bowers and the Police Jury's excuse when the modern day technology of a single cell phone call could have meant the difference in the life of a 14 year old farm worker, student, and little league player, who's life is snuffed out because of injuries sustained in an accident. In an emergency, a single cell phone call can mean the difference between life and death.
WE NEED CELL PHONE TOWERS IN JEFF DAVIS PARISH WITH ENOUGH COVERAGE FOR MOST OF THE FARMLAND AROUND. GETTING IT ALL COVERED WILL ONE DAY OCCUR BUT IN THE MEANTIME WE SHOULD NOT DENY OR COMPLICATE THE ISSUE OF TOWER CONSTRUCTION. WE NEED AS MANY AS THE CELL COMPANIES ARE WILLING TO PUT UP!.... IN THE NAME OF "SAFETY"!