Kids and Machinery

   / Kids and Machinery #11  
I think the law in Texas is that for a vehicle to operate on public roadways it must meet the same requirements as an automoble, with a few exceptions such as tractors. I know nothing about these 4 wheelers, except that they look like over powered go carts.
I started out at about 12 driving a tractor, as did other kids I knew. Some started way before I did. By 14 several of them were operating some pretty big ag machinery.
I've read quite a few comments on this board about kids, tractors, and safety, and have a few questions.
Do kids today have less sense than they did in my day? Do adults today have more sense than the previous generation?
Assuming that a young person has to start sometime. What is the right age? Or do you have to take each as an individual?
ErnieB
 
   / Kids and Machinery #13  
ErnieB, you're right; it's illegal for the kids to be driving those things on public roads, but it's quite commonly done out here in the country where there's very little patrolling by the Sheriff or Highway Patrol, not much traffic, etc.

Bird
 
   / Kids and Machinery #14  
ErnieB, I've been thinking about your thoughts on adults today having more sense or kids today having less sense. I grew up in dairy farm country in Southern Michigan a while ago, and probably like you was thrust into a role on the family farm, whether I liked it or not. I was driving shuttle tractors with hay wagons and manure spreaders when I was 10/11 years old. The heart of the matter is somebody had to do the work. I was carefully and thoroughly instructed by my Dad, and then sent to do the job. He tagged along the first few times to make sure I had a grasp of what I was supposed to do, but the rest was on the job training. I probably couldn't do that with my own children age that age, and at any rate I wouldn't want to do that with a 10/11 year old kid.

By the time my Dad quit farming seriously in the late sixties he was running just over 800 acres under plow with a 130 cow standing dairy herd. I was 17 and I'd been running pretty big ag equipment (big by 1960's standards) for 3 or 4 years. Again, not because I really wanted to, rather I had to.

I'm pretty sure necessity drove a lot of folks in farm communities to rely a lot more on their children to run and use ag equipment. I don't know that my Dad was real comfortable with a teenage kid driving around 12 or 14 hours a day with an IH 1456 turbo diesel and a seven bottom plow, but I don't know what other choice there was, either.

Bob Pence
 
   / Kids and Machinery #15  
Bob, You and I must be close to the same age. My farm work was for Uncles and Aunts. I thought it was great fun driving around on a Farmall B, and they payed me a little something to boot. Of course, they had plenty of less glamorous tasks as well. For me it was a way of earning spending money, for them I was a source of cheap labor. I don't know how needed I was, they always seemed to manage when I wasn't around.
When I graduated from High School in 68, I went to work for a large dairy. We usually milked about 600 head. The foremans son was about 14 and worked Summer and Saturdays. We put up alot of silage, and that kid could drive anything on the place. I don't think he had to do it, we had plenty of hands. Looking back, he was a very responsible young man and mature beyond his years.
Maybe, it's just the need to work, for whatever reason that teaches youngsters the responsiblity to handle machinery.
ErnieB
 
   / Kids and Machinery #16  
I just saw this news report today on Farm accidents and children. The short story is that Farm Safety groups say that 100 kids are killed and another 33,000 are injured every year in farm accidents.

<A HREF="http://www.nandotimes.com/nation/story/0,1038,500276732-500433216-502743554-0,00.html
" target="_new">http://www.nandotimes.com/nation/story/0,1038,500276732-500433216-502743554-0,00.html
</A>

Hope this helps...
Dan McCarty
 
   / Kids and Machinery #17  
A ROPS probably would have helped here. The front of the Gator would have still went under the trailer, pinning the victims against the ROPS.

The Kawi, with a full cage might have helped. Even then, the cage might likely have crumpled.

That's a terrible tragedy. It's a very sobering thought about what happens when a child is allowed on a ATV, or Water Craft unattended.

RobertN in Shingle Springs Calif
 
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