Posted By: Texas Dan
Close calls and lessons learned - 10/19/22 02:05 PM
In the spirit of my earlier post concerning TPWD Accident Reports, what close calls that could have resulted in an injury or fatal accident have you experienced while in the outdoors? After all, I'm sure there are many more close calls that happen every hunting season that are never reported. Still, they offer lessons learned to those who experience them, as well as those who hear about it.
I remember the time I was crossing a creek on an ATV and started up the bank on the other side. I had done a brake job on it about a week earlier and had forgotten to adjust the brakes, meaning I had no breaks when the ATV started to roll backwards down the bank. Thankfully, a friend was standing on the bank and quickly grabbed the front of the ATV so that it would not tip back and over as I rolled back into the creek bed.
And while I wasn't in camp at the time, I remember when a fellow hunter was lucky not to be injured when he was backing his ATV out of the bed of his truck. One of the tailgate cables snapped, sending him and the ATV over the side of the ramps. Ever since it happened I always pull my ATV out the back of my truck by hand and would NEVER consider climbing on and backing it out. I also invested in longer ramps that are sloped at the top and look for spots to unload where the angle of the ramps will be less.
I remember the time I was crossing a creek on an ATV and started up the bank on the other side. I had done a brake job on it about a week earlier and had forgotten to adjust the brakes, meaning I had no breaks when the ATV started to roll backwards down the bank. Thankfully, a friend was standing on the bank and quickly grabbed the front of the ATV so that it would not tip back and over as I rolled back into the creek bed.
And while I wasn't in camp at the time, I remember when a fellow hunter was lucky not to be injured when he was backing his ATV out of the bed of his truck. One of the tailgate cables snapped, sending him and the ATV over the side of the ramps. Ever since it happened I always pull my ATV out the back of my truck by hand and would NEVER consider climbing on and backing it out. I also invested in longer ramps that are sloped at the top and look for spots to unload where the angle of the ramps will be less.