When a bale slipped off a loader and fell onto the hapless operator, it left him partly paralyzed. It’s the type of accident that happens all too often, says the local fire chief
By DON STONEMAN
The accident merited a terse report in a policeman’s notebook and three paragraphs in the local newspaper. It left a young man’s life changed forever, and a deputy fire chief shaking his head in wonderment.
The police report describes how officers responded to a report of a farm accident on the 8th Line of Mapleton Township in Wellington County on Feb. 1, at 12:40 p.m. A 32-year old farmer, Doug Webber, had been found by his wife paralyzed on his loader-tractor seat nearly two hours after a large square bale of straw fell on him.