By George Gannon
Daily Mail staff
www.dailymail.com
Friday September 30, 2005
MILLSTONE - Tough people and tough things make for easy comparisons.
There's tough as nails, tough as boot leather, tough as a hickory trunk.
And then there's Matt Ashley tough. While the farm tractor Ashley was riding tumbled down a 70-foot-hill at a friend's farm, the 44-year-old managed to hang on for a ride that saw the three-ton piece of equipment flip over an estimated six times.
"I rode it out," Ashley said as he reclined on the hospital bed that had been placed in his mother's dimly lit, wood-paneled living room.
Fans of state high school wrestling should remember the name Matt Ashley. He dominated the mat in the late 1970s as a wrestler with Spencer High School. The former Yellow Jacket was West Virginia's first four-time state champion.
In fact, during his entire high school career and through four different weight classes, he lost only two matches.
"You'd have to say that Matt was cut from a little tougher cloth than everybody else," said Bill Archer, the man who has served as director of the state high school wrestling tournament off and on for the last 35 years.
"He's an old, hard-headed, hard-bodied farmer," he said.
Recovering in the living room of his mother's home
in Millstone in Calhoun County, Matt Ashley, 44, talks
about a farm tractor wreck that nearly killed him
Photo by Bob Wojcieszak
As Ashley recalled the incident, lying under faded family portraits and a mounted pair of steer horns, he said he could not remember anything once the fall started, but everything up to that point is crystal clear.
It was a sunny day in Calhoun County, and Ashley figured he would get done quickly at the farm in nearby Arnoldsburg, get to another job, then pack up and be ready to go for the evening shift at Century Aluminum in Ravenswood, where the Glenville State alum works as a foreman.
It was Thursday, Sept. 15, and the day was still pretty young. He'd already had his hair cut and also had put shoes on a mare in Gandyville. The former special education teacher and high school wrestling coach is an accomplished horse trainer.
Ashley had almost finished clearing brush and had one last swath of land at the top of the hill.
As he was backing up, he heard his brush hog, which was attached to the rear of the tractor, start spinning dirt. He shifted into forward gear, and the tractor's front end began to rise.
Instinctively, he stood up and tried to hit the clutch to bring the tractor back down, but his foot lodged under the clutch and the seat.
In an instant, things went from bad to worse.
The right rear wheel casing cracked. The case shattered, and the tractor dropped and started sliding off the embankment.
"I remember the initial roll over the hill, and that's all I remember," he said.
As the tractor flipped and tumbled down the hill, Ashley was able to grip the wheel hard enough that he wasn't thrown off and under the machine.
"I suppose it was a combination of getting hung up in there and just clutching for dear life on that steering wheel. I can't tell you what happened," he said.
The tractor's bucket was up and the machine's canopy and roll bar likely protected him during the fall.
The scene at the bottom of the hill wasn't pretty. The tractor was a twisted heap, and Ashley was screaming on the ground beside it.
He's not sure if he was tossed out when the tractor finally landed, or if he crawled out once it stopped rolling.
There was a trail of blood dotting the right side of the tractor, so he suspects he crawled out.
Neighbors heard the commotion. Ray Hall and his sons Donald and Daniel all came running, as did Ray's brother Dennis. All four men live next to the farm, and Ray, Donald and Daniel are all volunteer firemen and EMTs.
They began stabilizing Ashley, who was covered in blood, and, as he said, "flailing about."
Ashley would later learn that he had nearly ripped off his foot at the ankle, broken his leg in three places, broken a vertebra, cracked two ribs and torn a huge gash in his head where he repeatedly smashed into the canopy.
Another neighbor called 911, and he was soon loaded onto a helicopter and headed for Charleston Area Medical Center's General Hospital.
As he drifted in and out of consciousness, Ashley said he was able to speak briefly with his wife and daughter before being flown to Charleston.
He was out of the hospital a few days later. Although doctors initially told him they might have to amputate his foot, it appears now the wound will heal. He can't rise more than 30 degrees without putting on a full body brace.
Still, he seems pretty upbeat and talked at length about how happy he was that his neighbors were there to help.
"I tell you what, that's one of the reasons you call a place like this home. You just do whatever it takes to help your neighbor out," he said.
It's been a dangerous year for the Ashley family. His son, Justin, broke his leg during a logging accident a few months back.
He's fine now, but Ashley said the entire family is looking forward to 2006.
"We've had two near misses this year. That's enough for one year. We'd like to finish 2005 kind of peaceful like. That's what we'd like to do. I'd like to finish it low profile. Calm, cool and collected," he said.
Though the tractor looks like it's in pretty bad shape after
tumbling down a 70-foot high hill, Ashley said all they need to do
to repair it is replace the canopy and the right wheel casing
Photo by Bob Wojcieszak
Contact writer George Gannon at 348-4843
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