Runaway Tractor Stopped By Gunfire

Runaway tractor stopped by gunfire AG WORLD Ag World 16-6-19 Tennessee farmer Jim Wood bagged a 16,000-lb. "Deere" last fall with a 12-ga. shotgun after the runaway "monster" ran over his neighbor, Ricky Blackmon. No, Wood didn't set a new world record for deer hunters and he didn't get a trophy to hang on his wall. What he did was shoot the fuel filter off an out-of-control Deere tractor that was running in a circle in the field and had a full tank of gas. The saga started when Ricky Blackmon tried to jump start the tractor with a screw-driver while standing alongside the tractor. As the tractor motor jumped to life, the transmission kicked into gear and the tractor surged forward, running over Blackmon's body lengthwise, breaking 6 ribs and causing many other injuries. With his chest crushed, the badly injured farmer crawled to the mobile phone in his pickup and called an ambulance first and then dialed his friend Jim Wood for help. When Wood arrived, Blackmon was receiving aid but the renegade tractor was still on the loose, running in a circle in the field, rapidly digging a hole in the soft dirt. When Blackmon told him he had just filled the fuel tank that day, Wood decided to bring the tractor to a stop by shooting off the fuel filter and stopping the flow of fuel. He hit the filter dead on with his first shot, bringing the tractor to a rapid stop and doing no other permanent damage to the tractor. Blackmon was treated for cuts, abrasions and six broken ribs. Deere & Co. representatives came out several days later to install a refit kit which prevents jump-starting (anyone can have these kits installed free of charge by Deere dealers). Contact FARM SHOW Followup, Ricky Blackmon, 5028 Mt. Carmel Rd., Covington, Tenn. 38019 (ph 901476-7621).

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