Seven-year-olds banned from tractors

whisky_galore · 13-11-2014 11:03AM #1

http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/seven-year-olds-banned-from-tractors-650858.html

_Brian · 13-11-2014 11:15AM

Given the deaths on farms its hard to make any argument against this. I'm in full support for it.

whisky_galore · 13-11-2014 11:20AM

The ma used keep me indoors with sweets/tv/bribery during silage, having said that I had no great interest in being rattled around in the boneshakers of tractors back then.

longshanks · 13-11-2014 11:22AM

This can only be a good thing. How well it's enforced is another question though.

Sunset V · 13-11-2014 11:25AM

Just saw that in the journal alright. Not sure I agree with it though.

We were always educated on the dangers of the farm while being there. Education over legislation is my view.

PTOs and slurry pits make sense but the kids rule is a bit OTT.

twin_beacon · 13-11-2014 11:40AM

I disagree with it, in a lot of cases, the safest place for a young child to be is actually in the cab, with the driver. the driver knows exactly where they are at all times.

Kevhog1988 · 13-11-2014 11:45AM

How will this be actually enforced??

micraX · 13-11-2014 11:47AM

Sure your not allowed or insured in a tractor unless you have a w licence anyway

Manach · 13-11-2014 11:51AM

I'd disagree. As other posters said, the sooner the child is educated by parents on the dangers of farm equipment the better while the law's purpose is to show the state is being seen to do something.

weatherbyfoxer · 13-11-2014 11:57AM

How many children were harmed safely seated in a tractor passenger seat???....seems more harm to have them running around on the farm while tractors are working??.

893bet · 13-11-2014 12:04PM

twin_beacon wrote: »

I disagree with it, in a lot of cases, the safest place for a young child to be is actually in the cab, with the driver. the driver knows exactly where they are at all times.

This.

Policy makers have no clue. Reeks of making policy for sake of it. Just to be seen taking action.

lakill Farm · 13-11-2014 12:41PM

education is the key

I had my niece (4) with me on Sunday. On a passenger seat with seat belt. She spends 10 hours a week on a tractor.

Now is she more of a danger than

a 40 year old on a drawbar of a trailer of hanging out the door and them knowing it all?

Deepsouthwest · 13-11-2014 01:15PM

My 3 yr old will be distraught at this news, I'll have to tell him it's his mothers idea!

GM228 · 13-11-2014 01:20PM

A child is best with the parents wherever that may be as long as they are well educated-however what annoys me is when a child is allowed drive the tractor!

I've seen this many times-I've no problem with them "having a go" with superviosion for the experience but I have seen a few times kids driving them with no adult supervision! Pretty shocking!

GM228

whisky_galore · 13-11-2014 01:30PM

GM228 wrote: »

A child is best with the parents wherever that may be as long as they are well educated-however what annoys me is when a child is allowed drive the tractor!

I've seen this many times-I've no problem with them "having a go" with superviosion for the experience but I have seen a few times kids driving them with no adult supervision! Pretty shocking!

GM228

Just goes to show that there are some adults/parents who shouldn't be in charge of a cream bun, let alone a child. Of course they'll always claim that 'they know what's best'.:rolleyes:
Think the days that kids can run riot unsupervised around active farmyards are gone, esp with the amount of livestock being handled and the size of machines that you can't see a little person from. It was alright in the days when there was nothing bigger than a MF135 and a handful of cattle.

uck51js9zml2yt · 13-11-2014 01:37PM

I'm just amazed that people are so stupid to the dangers of farm machinery and children that they need regulation.

Anyone who let's a child in or around a piece of farm machinery or let's then drive should be charged with child endangerment.

As whisky galore said.. "cream buns...."

paddysdream · 13-11-2014 02:17PM

Good idea in theory but will be like a lot of things;never enforced unless something serious happens.
Farming and life in general seems to become more and more regulated each year and this is I presume a sop to all the farm accidents involving children in the last couple of years.

To be honest have kids here and never too fond of them on the tractor.Not maybe from their safety point of view but from the point of view that its rather difficult at times to give the job at hand your full attention whilst keeping an eye on the kid.
Would there be the same level of concern from posters if they decided to say ban all under 7s from going down the coal mines with their dads or maybe hanging around a building site or engineering factory with him all day?
Think those industries have a better safety record than the one we are involved in.

That said would rather a young lad up beside me where I can see him than running around the field or yard.Depends on the job in hand I suppose.Tipping around the field herding or something like ploughing then grand but say drawing silage,mowing etc then its a different story.

That said,some parents have no concept of danger or are too thick to see it.For example see one place at silage where the kids wander around the yard at all times(even around the pit as loads are tipped) and as soon as you arrive Daddy lands one up in each tractor and might not look for them again for hours.Got to the stage where now tell them that insurance prohibits any kids on machinery.Rather hard to concentrate on a high speed job when you have a 5 year old bouncing around on the passenger seat in the dark.

whisky_galore · 13-11-2014 03:19PM

paddysdream wrote: »

Would there be the same level of concern from posters if they decided to say ban all under 7s from going down the coal mines with their dads or maybe hanging around a building site or engineering factory with him all day?
Think those industries have a better safety record than the one we are involved in.

That's after hard experience, lobbying by unions, legislation and decades upon decades of fatalities.

Can't really compare to a building site, where if you don't have the proper PPE, machinery tickets, training/safe pass you won't be left work and unless you have specific business on site you will be told firmly to leave the premises.

FarmerDougal · 13-11-2014 04:35PM

micraX wrote: »

Sure your not allowed or insured in a tractor unless you have a w licence anyway

Your allowed drive on your own land from 14 years old without licence. Not covered though.

blue5000 · 13-11-2014 04:41PM

As a farmer with an 8 year old I can see both sides of the argument. What are the alternatives? Put the kid in a ceche at €100-150 a week? That's the profit on a lot of cattle gone fairly fast.

Leave the kid in front of the tv/PS etc on their own?

Personally I'd prefer to have the kid with me, that way he is not only learning the dangers, but he is learning about farming too. What is he going to learn about farming in the creche, where almost any evening I go to collect him he is plonked in front of the tv anyway?

On the other hand it is totally irresponsible to have kids around a yard when silage etc. is going on and really unfair on the drivers.

_Brian · 13-11-2014 04:44PM

I'm very sure the construction and manufacturing industries poo-poo'd and moaned about the impracticality of safety legislation when it was introduced in their sectors..

Yet, over the last 100 years the safety in these industries has vastly improved.

If we're not willing to embrace change on such a fundamentally basic line item such as the safety of children and their exclusion from dangerous machinery then what hope is there.. Lets not be dinosaurs and move with the times folks.

The statistics on Irish farm deaths, specifically those of children speaks volumes, and its not a good story !

whisky_galore · 13-11-2014 05:06PM

_Brian wrote: »

I'm very sure the construction and manufacturing industries poo-poo'd and moaned about the impracticality of safety legislation when it was introduced in their sectors..

That they did, there was a time when there was an 'acceptable' number of fatalities factored into major engineering projects. This would be totally unthinkable now.

As for children 'learning' about farming, can you think of any other workplace where adults bring children in to 'learn' about what's involved?? I'm struggling to think of examples. If it's a child minder or some sort of supervision that's needed, isn't it worth paying for that, instead of paying for a funeral and becoming another statistic?

valtraman · 13-11-2014 08:05PM

Children are much safer in a modern enclosed safety cab than almost anywhere else on a farm ,after a drive they are more lightly to stay with Mom satisfied and not sneak to see whats going on and get driven over. TRACTORS just have a huge appeal for children

Miname · 13-11-2014 09:36PM

There are clowns out there that should have to apply for a licence to have a child , these are the ones that shouldnt have kids anywhere near a tractor but a blanket ban on all, is just another pr exercise. getting up on a tractor and working with stoc is all part of growing up on a farm.

_Brian · 13-11-2014 10:32PM

valtraman wrote: »

Children are much safer in a modern enclosed safety cab than almost anywhere else on a farm ,after a drive they are more lightly to stay with Mom satisfied and not sneak to see whats going on and get driven over. TRACTORS just have a huge appeal for children

But if you exclude tractors with contractors... what % of working tractors on Irish farms have designed second seats ?
I know in our area where small farms are the norm its near none.

frazzledhome · 13-11-2014 11:02PM

Mine will continue coming with me. Seat with belt provided fully enclosed secure cab, safer than travelling by car.

They love it and I love them with me

kowtow · 13-11-2014 11:04PM

I think it would be better if the law was phrased to specify that the child should be in a safety seat, rather than not in the tractor at all.

After all, you can ride through the centre of Dublin (or London) for that matter with a child in a seat on the back of your bicycle. Without a helmet on it, as far as I know - although I doubt many would today.

And sometimes having the child in the cab is safer than the alternative. It may mean a job can be done when it is safer, drier, light (at this time of year) rather than waiting for someone else to be home to mind the child.

Like all regulation, it is the unintended consequences which sometimes cause damage, rather than avoid it.

Greengrass1 · 13-11-2014 11:17PM

I remember as a young lad no higher than my fathers knee sitting in the tractor. Great times. Would never have got to do any other farming as a young lad other wise.
Father even sent back a brand new tractors to dealers to get passenger seat put in it . Wouldn't even take it off the lorry.
New tractors nowadays are so much safer the new tractor here has a better passengee seat than most tractors driving seat

mahoney_j · 13-11-2014 11:48PM

No way my daughter is coming out with me on the farm,way too many hidden dangers and u just can't watch everything.there just not d enough to understand how dangerous a farm actually is.what do u do if your say putting out bales up and down out of tractor??if little Johnny is sitting in the tractor whilst your taking off plastic etc what's he/she going to do,naturally enough grab a lever or jump in the driver seat.i was on our farm with my dad as a young lad and often hear of stories about me or my brother and our near misses with the cows,tractor,bales of hay etcher got away lucky enough .
Most farms are now very busy places and one man operations ,if I need help I get the da or wife to give me a dig out but never a child as if anything happend I couldn't live with it.i think that proposal is a great idea ifvitbeven saves one life

DarByrne1980 · 13-11-2014 11:52PM

I tink dat theres pros and cons when we were young we spent all our time on da farm lookin back now it woz dangerous but we managed 2 get away without anything major happening I do tink dat da major thing is supervision but supervision is very difficult on farms wit so much going on I wud be of da mindset dat its just not worth da risk children will hve plenty of time 2b on farms and in da yards when they are teenagers

Genghis Cant · 14-11-2014 12:05AM

According to the HSA accidents involving farmers over 55 often account for over 70% of on farm deaths.
50% of fatal accidents on farm in 2011 were over 65.
Maybe this needs to be looked at first.

Seven-year-olds banned from tractors

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