My dad was plowing once with my brother standing beside him when he hit a huge rock. The tractor stopped dead and my brother fell in front of the big rear tire. Lucky the tractor stalled or he would have been run over. No more riding on the tractor beside dad after that.
I rode a lot of hours beside my Dad. He was pretty safety oriented and was especially careful with things like that because he fell off a tractor he was riding on as a child and got run over by a cultipacker. Also my Dad's 'day' job was as a crane operator (back before hydraulics when they were all cables, drums, brakes and clutches) so his reflexes were honed pretty sharp!
Sometimes you get lucky...
Correct!!!
I've never liked the wide use of the phrase 'accident'...
there are very, very few true 'accidents'...
Most everything that gets called an 'accident' is (in my opinion) the result of someones negligence or not very well planned out intentions.
Motor vehicle accidents today are so often the result of operator inattention or distractions.