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17th Aug 2022

Angry local jumps in front of combine harvester to complain about his dusty sandwich

Jack Peat

He was not happy 

An incensed local jumped in front of a combine harvester to complain about his sandwich being covered in dust.

Footage posted by Eleanor Gilbert showed the man blocking the progress of the 16-tonne vehicle as it was harvesting in a wheat field.

He can then be seen complaining that his ‘family meal’ had been ruined after the vehicle sprayed them twice.

Eleanor Gilbert shared the video on Twitter, along with the caption: “Yesterday we had an angry member of the public jump out in front of the combine around the headland because his sandwich was covered in dust.

“He then came out again and stood in front of the combine. He was so lucky not to have been hit by a vehicle. Thanks mum for de-escalation.”

The clip has been viewed 800,000 times, and Eleanor has since explained why he was lucky the situation didn’t turn out worse.

Speaking to Newbury Today, the 20-year-old said: “The view from a tractor and combine can be poor in harvest, particularly in this dry weather, which is why he nearly got run over by the tractor.”

She has since provided a bit more background about what exactly went down.

Speaking on Jeremy Vine’s show on Radio 2, she said: “We were just combining our field and on our first turn around the headland – the outside bit of the field – a man jumped out in front of the combine.

“Luckily we managed to stop, we get out, we have a conversation, and we try and explain politely that, ‘you need to get out of the way.’

“We then went around a second time and he ran in front of the combine and he wouldn’t get out of the way, because we decided we were going to see if we carry on if he gets out of the way.”

He refused though, and the subsequent interaction between the man and Eleanor’s mum went viral.

Eleanor continued: “He said we did it on purpose because we went around the field twice. However, to combine a field you have to go around twice, so you can do your land work, the bit in the middle, so you don’t run over the rest of the crop at the end.”

She added: “It was all resolved in the end.”

Elaborating on the dangerous predicament the man had put himself in, Eleanor explained: “With the gusty conditions at the moment, it’s very hard to see, there’s limited vision, you can hardly see a few metres in front of you.

“All of our equipment is now run by GPS, so the combine driver could have been looking at the screens, or monitoring something, or changing all the different settings.

“And it only takes two seconds for the combine driver to take their eye off the ball and for the combine not to stop, and it does take a while for this big machine to stop, because there’s so much horsepower going into it.”

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