A freak accident involving a sprayer and a grain truck highlights the
need for farm equipment operators to pay extra attention to safety at
this time of year.
On the morning of Aug. 29, Wayne Boklaschuk of Hafford, Sask., narrowly
escaped tragedy while driving on a dirt road, when the boom of a
sprayer smashed through the passenger window of his grain truck, passed
in front of his nose, and exited out the driver side window.
His father Nick, who was travelling in a half-ton truck behind his son,
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witnessed the accident.
“The boom took his cap off. The cap flew away about 25 feet from the
truck, but it still never hurt him,” said the senior Boklaschuk.
“Can you imagine a boom going in front of your face as you are driving
– right in front of your mouth?”
The boom safely exited the truck when the two vehicles drifted apart.
Boklaschuk said his son was in a state of shock after the accident, but
sustained only a bump on the head.
Wayne Boklaschuk declined to be interviewed.
His father said an angel must have been looking out for his son that
morning. He feels like he has won a “billion dollar sweepstake” because
his boy is still alive.
The sprayer is owned by Agriteam Services Inc. of Speers, Sask., which
does custom spraying work for farmers in the area.
“Our guy was just turning a corner in the field and his boom stuck out
on the road and this truck happened to come out from behind a bush and
it hit his truck,” said Rick Simmonds of Agriteam Services.
Simmonds said the road is “an absolute cow trail of a road” that is
virtually carved into a field.
“The fields come right to the edge of the road. There’s no fence, no
grass boundary there, no nothing,” he said.”This would have never
happened on a grid road because there would have been a ditch.”
In addition to a bump on the head and the scare of a lifetime, Wayne
Boklaschuk was exposed to herbicide that spilled into the cab of the
truck. He immediately went home and had a bath.
Simmonds said the sprayer was shut off because the operator was turning
a corner, but when the nozzle at the end of the boom was knocked off
during the collision, it deposited a small amount of “harmless
chemical” into the truck.
He said Agriteam will pay for repairs to the truck, which were minor.
He added he is glad nobody was hurt in this “freak” accident.
“If you were making a movie and you wanted that kind of a scene in your
movie, you’d never do that. You’d try it a hundred times and you’d
never duplicate it.”
Cathy Vanstone, chair of the Canadian Agricultural Safety Association,
said harvest is the time of year when most farm accidents occur. The
majority of those involve machinery.
“The need for safety is this time of year. When we’re busiest we know
the risk is greatest, but it is something that does need to be a
priority all year round.”
More than 1,000 Canadians are hospitalized and 116 die each year as a
result of farm accidents.
The RCMP is investigating the accident.
