Close call: A story of hay, heroism and second chances

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Local News

September 28, 2018 - 11:00 PM

Brandon Griffith avoided major injury in a recent farm accident and avoided death in an attack on American troops in Afghanistan. REGISTER/RICK DANLEY

Editor’s note: At this point, there is sufficient evidence to doubt the veracity of nearly all the claims of this article’s subject. We have since published an update to this story. You can read it here.

The plan was to interview a young man who’d recently been run over by a bale of hay.

This man had been standing near the hay trailer, helping unload the cylinders, when one of the giant, 2,000-pound bales slipped from the tractor’s front spikes and began rolling his way. The tractor operator honked his horn in warning. The young man heard it and turned around, his feet sliding in the loose gravel — but it was too late. The bale knocked him down and rolled completely over his upper half. He remained on the ground for a couple of minutes, trying to catch his breath. The accident had knocked the wind out of him. The tractor operator, who happened to be the man’s younger brother, came to check on the man. “Hey,” the younger brother said, “you’re not supposed to be sleeping on the job.” The man got up, dusted himself off, said a few bad words, and went back to work. The next day it hurt to breathe.

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