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Teenager roped into silaging with round the clock working to get it all done thought he could take some speed to keep himself awake, epic fail but this is why I was always shitting myself on roads in Galloway come silaging as they work in teams from farm to farm with very little sleep/time off whilst piloting 15 tonnes at full speed on narrow roads.
Hey kids! Remember to not take drugs, then drive tractors.
If only they were taught that at schools.
somafunk
Full Member
Teenager roped into silaging with round the clock working to get it all done thought he could take some speed to keep himself awake, epic fail but this is why I was always shitting myself on roads in Galloway come silaging as they work in teams from farm to farm with very little sleep/time off whilst piloting 15 tonnes at full speed on narrow roads.
Funnily enough rumour has it that the rig involved belongs to a contractor from near Annan who ships his drivers and kit off down south to pick up on big money contracts hauling rye/maize for the anaerobic digester plants.
It sounds like drugs might have been involved as well.
As a company they have a bloody awful reputation for road behaviour, borne out by what I've seen of them when I've been working close to their base of operations 👎
Christ, hope he was wearing a helmet.
WTF - how come no one was injured?? That car must have some massive airbags...
Get oorrrf moy [s] land[/s] road.
That car should have been wearing hi viz
He was just moving the tractor aside to let traffic behind pass.
I have been saying for some time that tractor drivers are the biggest threat to my safety. After years of scary near misses, I try to keep out of their way here on the rural lanes of Norfolk. It’s a real problem, young kids in control of very large and heavy machinery with no regard for other road users and most drivers are contractors working on price means that speed is key to better pay!!
I seem to remember when I was at school (30 years ago!) people talking about the age being really young to drive a tractor, something like 13 is that correct? May have just been to drive on private land or something.
My first experience of driving anything was a tractor when I was 16. No instruction about anything, just told to go to another farm the other side of the small town I lived in and pick up the 'Hater' (or that's what I thought the farmer said). So figured out how to start the tractor (blue Ford 4000 I think) and made my way into the traffic. Got to the other farm and asked for the hater, and shown a huge grass cutter (made by Hyter!) Managed to hitch it to my tractor (with help) and made it home.
Not sure how legal it was then, hopefully things have improved a bit now.
I seem to remember when I was at school (30 years ago!) people talking about the age being really young to drive a tractor, something like 13 is that correct?
I *think*
13 to drive it legally on the farm (off public road) as part of operations.
16 to drive on road with provisional and (F?) Tractor theory. No weight limit. No driver hours limits. 😱
And +1 for the pressure contractors and farmers are under during certain periods.
13 to drive it legally on the farm (off public road) as part of operations.
16 to drive on road with provisional and (F?) Tractor theory. No weight limit. No driver hours limits. 😱
And +1 for the pressure contractors and farmers are under during certain periods.
Restricted distances and/or within a certain 'circle' of the registered farm etc.
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/agricultural-vehicle-licences-and-fuel
That video made me feel sick. What is most remarkable is the driver of the Volvo was still alive and apparently not seriously injured.
Now I am not a big fan of Volvos but even I think that is taking it a bit far!
It was a Honda and there’s some still photos of it here 🫣
No idea how the occupant(s) aren’t dead or seriously injured.
https://www.eadt.co.uk/news/traffic/suffolk-photos-show-aftermath-of-tractor-crash-9301244
Lucky it wasn't a lorry. The large low pressure front tyres with, I imagine limited from loading due to the trailer, saved the driver. And yes watching makes me feel sick. But you are only watching it BECAUSE there was not serious injury (this time).
That'll buff out.
Blimey. It’s usually the Americans driving on the wrong side
I first drove a tractor at 15 helping a local famer haytiming. Got sent down a steep hill on a public road to take a trailer of bales back to the farm. This was an old grey fergie with only one working brake so whenever I braked the tractor tried to swing across the road....was an interesting experience to say the least...
It was a Honda
Impressive to come out of that without serious injury. More of an Accordion than an Accord.
I've done my fair share of driving dodgy farm equipment.
Case pivot-steer wheeled loader with no working brakes was the worst. Just whack it in reverse and give it some revs so the hydrostatic gearbox slows you down.
All fine until one day you whack it in reverse, hit the accelerator and nothing happens... accelerating down the hill towards the barn was one of the most terrifying experiences of my life. Luckily after the bale grab smashed through the brick wall and the roof collapsed on top of it the loader came to a stop and I didn't end up inside the wreckage of the barn (no cab or roll cage, so that would not have ended well).
The young lads who drive the hay cutting tractors/trailers around here have an interesting approach to other road users. Basically they don't really like stopping.
I, my wife an a friend came close to being killed by a tractor driver once. I was driving up a fairly narrow uphill lane in Kent, when a tractor was coming towards us. It just didn't slow down, bounced up the banking, back on the road and kept coming. We realised it wasn't going to stop, so I did my best James Bond reversing back down the blind corner behind, praying nothing was coming, until I could pull into a gate. The farmer managed to stop next to us, and grinning said "it's ok, there was just a roll of twine jammed under the brake"!
So that's ok then...
There's a real problem in my area, young lad driving one of the bigger tractors constantly hauling a big trailer full of builders debris and spoil, taken of countless wing mirrors. Pretty sure he'll be illegally dumping all the waste on one of the remote farms as well. It's only a matter of time before he hits more than a wing mirror. This is on 30 mph roads with parked cars and limited space.
TiRed
Lucky it wasn’t a lorry.
Yeah, lucky it wasn't something completely different cos it would've been er, completely different! 😆
that sort of thing happened outside my house but it was the other way round. Driver lost it on a wet bend and went under the tractor. The outcome was not so favourable. That driver was lucky. So lucky.
I have been saying for some time that tractor drivers are the biggest threat to my safety. After years of scary near misses, I try to keep out of their way here on the rural lanes of Norfolk. It’s a real problem, young kids in control of very large and heavy machinery with no regard for other road users and most drivers are contractors working on price means that speed is key to better pay!!
+1
Lunacy
This was an old grey fergie with only one working brake so whenever I braked the tractor tried to swing across the road….
Side brakes were great on those old tractors.
This was an old grey fergie with only one working brake so whenever I braked the tractor tried to swing across the road….
Side brakes were great on those old tractors.
I've just read that and realised what happened when I demolished a mate's shed, 25 years ago, by missing the entrance in his ancient Ford - it was the brakes and not me! 😀
Those tractors with huge overloaded trailers are indeed a menace. I'm not that far from that accident site and have ridden down that road. Somewhat ironic that the car driver was an american serviceman from the base considering how many of them forget which side of the road to use. Glad he's OK.
On my commute I go past a aerobic digester plant and a straw burning powerplant, this time of year it's a particular menace.
Watching the footage was shocking, looking at the photos I still can’t believe the car driver even got out alive, let alone without significant injuries! His family won’t believe it either.
Insurance company is going to be rather unhappy. I think some of these big tractors are £300k
If the driver was on drugs they won't be paying out.
I still can't believe the car driver survived.
At harvest time, or seeding time those big tractors scream the the village.
The sound of the tyres at speed and the different pitch as the tractor bounces along is unsettling, bit like a train coming through the station at speed and you know the shear momentum of it.
We have a a kid injured when a tractor lost control and mounted the curb, thankfully "just" a broken leg.
I was talking to my mate in the pub about this, he followed up and watched the footage, and also read a piece about it in a farming publication - where he lives is part of the family farm, they still own land which they rent out, and the reason the driver of the Honda got away almost unscathed is that his car was brought over from the States, it was a left-hand drive. An English car, and the driver would have been crushed.
If the driver was on drugs they won’t be paying out.
It's a virtual certainly the insurer is nfu mutual. Drugs has no impact on a third party Road Traffic Act claim so they'll payout. The tractor will be fine, it's just gone on its side. The Accord is old.
All in all, probably not a massive claim.
Im surprised it doesnt happen more often.
The speed you see some of the kids (and they are kids) are driving around Honiton (East Devon), in similar sized tractors, with similar sized trailers.
No idea how much one of those things weighs, with a trailer on the back.
No push bars around the wheels to stop them from mounting anything they clip.
The tractor in that video looks like it jumped up, probably from the wheel hitting the engine block.
Something with the block in the back and i reckon it would have squashed the occupant (more)
I have been saying for some time that tractor drivers are the biggest threat to my safety.
I was in hospital a couple of years ago after a big off. Another guy on the ward had been walking a country lane when a tractor came round a corner and took him out. He knew it was coming but there was nowhere for him to go.
True a badly driven car might have had the same effect, and I sure there are many careful tractorists etc. But the story scared me.
I don’t drive many of the local lanes these days, mainly because my new car is ten inches wider than my old one, and trying to manoeuvre a vehicle that’s practically touching the sides with no passing places and steep banks and/or walls either side just makes me far too wary about meeting sometime bigger then me on a tight bend, with nowhere to go, except try to reverse backwards along a quarter mile or more of almost blind lane. Some people absolutely will not back up, even with a passing place thirty feet behind with a dead straight reverse down a bit of a hill, expecting me to reverse up a 1:6 hill around a blind bend with the nearest other passing place a quarter of a mile up the hill - if a tractor and trailer had come down, I’d be totally flattened.