Child on Motorcycle or Tractor which is more dangerous

[deepNdirt]

we all have been talking about the risk of riding children on buisy street/roadways, let me shift it to backroad/country road ridding where most folks would assume there could nothing happen, Back when I was a youngster so highly inspired by motorcycle riders, We live on an old gravel paved road ya know the kind where DOT used to lay out hot tar and then spread gravel over it and let the traffic do the packing in down....
well we were the only houes within 1 miles each way of this road, a friend of mine was over and had brought his Collie (Dog) we were throwing the football around and we started hearing a loud engine noise heading up the road we ran out to the side of the pavment to wave at him as he went by on his chopper forks extended way out front 4 ft long rake, little did we know that the dog was going to give chaise and ran right under this man on his chopper,
I never seen such flipping for over 100 ft. this guy was mangled up very badly had nothing on but a ripped up pair of jeans and a denim vest and his skin from slidding on that gravel paved road left him bloody from head to toe, I ran over to the man while me friend went to see about his dog, My parrents rush the man to the Hospital and the dog died.....
this story is to mention that accidents can happen out in the middle of anywhere
not only in the busy streets, it is a known facts you are up sh*t creek when it comes to anything coming in contact with you and your cycle no matter where you are,

 

[Transit]

Take it one step farther, same accident but no own around to call for aid.

 

[JoelD]

Sorry about not being clear in my last post, my 21 year old acquantance died on the scene in the arms of his best budy and a very close friend of mine, he was also 21 at the time.


Joel

 

[NuBota]

I just witnessed a "fender bender" two weeks ago. Biker had the right-of way traveling down a main road about 40-50 (speed limit is 40). I was on the cross street behind a guy that shot out to make a left - he clipped the bike just in front of the rear axle. The biker was able to maintain control and stop the bike -all fine. I don't see how the biker could have avoided it unless he was omniscient. But, funny, my first thought was that if a passenger was on there, their right leg would have been mangled. It just doesn't take much....

I liken this "discussion" to that of car seats and seat belts. Those of us over a certain age, as kids, road in the beds of pickups and in the front and back seat of cars without seatbelts and/or car seats - with higher speed limits - and "we survived just fine". Whether it is because of the law, or just education, you don't see much of that anymore.

By the same token, I do not see many cases of kids on the back of street bikes. And, of all the few dozen folks I know that ride, I only know of a couple that cart their kids around. That could account for low stastitics of injuries/deaths, if its commonly accepted that its not a risk worth taking.

As I said earlier, it is a matter of acceptable risk - and everyone's measurement and level is different. Based on my experience I would not take the risk in regards to the bike - and I consider myself too inexperienced on the tractor to push the envelope much there - most I will do is a ride in the lap around the flat and established front yard. But to each his own...

 

[Brad_Blazer]

The title of this thread - Which is more dangerous?
I looked up some numbers.
73 motorcycle deaths per 100,000 registrations vs 14 auto deaths per 100,000 registrations.
So the motorcycle death risk is 5x the auto death risk. Big surprise.

4810 motorcycle fatalities in 2006. 10% were passengers. That's about 480 motorcycle passengers killed. That 4810 was 11% of the 44,000 overall highway deaths.


Tractor related deaths total about 200 per year. If someone dies on a tractor it's news. When someone dies on the highway it's not.

How you manage these risks in legal activities is up to you. I myself am a flagrant scofflaw - my boys ride a 110cc mini atv that has a minimum age requirement of 16 despite the fact that my 14 year old dwarfs the thing. Of course he can legally ride my 400cc quad to go feed the the goats.

Oh yeah, the ATV fatality rate is 550/year, 20-25 of them farm related.

 

[Brad_Blazer]

The title of this thread - Which is more dangerous?
I looked up some numbers.
73 motorcycle deaths per 100,000 registrations vs 14 auto deaths per 100,000 registrations.
So the motorcycle death risk is 5x the auto death risk. Big surprise.

4810 motorcycle fatalities in 2006. 10% were passengers. That's about 480 motorcycle passengers killed. That 4810 was 11% of the 44,000 overall highway deaths.


Tractor related deaths total about 200 per year. If someone dies on a tractor it's news. When someone dies on the highway it's not.

How you manage these risks in legal activities is up to you. I myself am a flagrant scofflaw - my boys ride a 110cc mini atv that has a minimum age requirement of 16 despite the fact that my 14 year old dwarfs the thing. Of course he can legally ride my 400cc quad to go feed the the goats.

Oh yeah, the ATV fatality rate is 550/year, 20-25 of them farm related.

 

[Redneck in training]

Here is another story how easy is to get killed at seemingly benign activity. My family used to own a summerhouse by a lake. One summer day neighbor's 15 years old son (without a driving license) and two of his friends were driving neighbor car on a dirt road around the meadow just behind our house. One of the friends was sitting on the back seat in the middle of the car. At one point a shallow ditch crossed the road. During one round they apparently hit the ditch at higher speed and when the car landed all of them were thrown forward. They made few more rounds and returned to the neighbor house and got out of the car. But the guy on the back seat kept sitting in the car. He was dead with a single small injury in his forehead. This happened many years ago before the seat belts were invented and rear view mirrors were designed to not to break off. When the car landed during the jump he was thrown forward hit the mirror and landed back to the seat.

Needles to say that to large degree I agree with Haymaker. Life is full of risks. People die falling from a bed or slipping on banana peel. Our own children survived bicycle crashes, falls from trees, close calls during water skiing not speaking about reckless snow skiing. There were one broken arm and one leg and bunch of road tattoos.
When they are young you can control the degree of risk you expose them to. When they get older and expose themselves to risky behavior (you have no control over) they already have some experience what the limit are and/or have the risky behavior already out of their system.

My wife told me story about few overprotected, sheltered girls entring college life. You saw them passed out drunk in the dorm hallway. They got drunk, lost virginity, got infected by STD and pregnant all in a single day. And that risky isn't it.

So to answer the original question. Motorcycles are dangerous, tractors as well. But it is your behaviour that makes it more or less risky. Would I take my child for a ride on a tractor or bike. Yes.

 

[tallyho8]

In my own personal experience, I have never know a child who was injured on a motorcycle on the highway as a passenger. One of my friend's kids fell off his tractor and under his bush hog and got a leg cut off.

Although I would not ride my grandson on a motorcycle on the highway, I believe that riding a child on a motorcycle makes YOU at LESS risk of getting killed. I say this because I know that most folks driving their child around drive much safer and more defensively than when they are driving by themselves. It seems that most people care more about the safety of their young'uns then they do themselves.

 

[deepNdirt]

Needles to say that to large degree I agree with Haymaker. Life is full of risks. People die falling from a bed or slipping on banana peel. Our own children survived bicycle crashes, falls from trees, close calls during water skiing not speaking about reckless snow skiing. There were one broken arm and one leg and bunch of road tattoos.
When they are young you can control the degree of risk you expose them to. When they get older and expose themselves to risky behavior (you have no control over) they already have some experience what the limit are and/or have the risky behavior already out of their system.
overprotected

So to answer the original question. Motorcycles are dangerous, tractors as well. But it is your behaviour that makes it more or less risky. Would I take my child for a ride on a tractor or bike. Yes.

everything you have stated about childhood growing up is true and ecceptable by mother nature, what the discution has been about is what should not be acceptable, by putting children in a risk of being seriously injured or killed,............. I'm going to ask this question and hope it will give a bit of prospective or perhaps at least make you relize what some of you are saying when you say its OK to ride them on the traffic streets,
..Do you allow your children to ride their Bicycles in the streets with traffic?..
plain and simple answer! (((( Yes or No )))) if you answer (No) I assure you you will not be looked at as an "Over Protective Parent " you will simply be looked at as a normal parent that has concern for their childrens safety, However! if you answer (yes) that you do allow your children to ride their bike in busy streets and simply tell them to "watch out for the cars" .....
if this is the case then there is No hope for you to ever understand what we have been talking about with the issue of putting our children at risk.
Think about it and see if you can determine the difference..... or is their one!

 

[dmccarty]

I would love to rode a motorcicle but I don't feel safe with these zombie drivers in my 7,500 pound F350 I sure as heck am not getting out on a bike. ESPECIALLY after a lady did not yield and turned against traffic when she could not see said traffic and hit the traffic. Traffic being US.

Because I had some very serious driver training, driving experience using said training, being alert that day, and ACTING promptly and correctly I am still reading TBN. The lady hit the driver front corner of our little CRV. If I had been a fraction of a second slower in reacting she would have hit my door. Given how far her car pushed INTO our car it would not have been pretty. It was bad enough as it was and the wife and I are still in pain from the accident.

If I had been on a bike I would have been dead. No, if's and's or buts. Just dead.

This morning I saw a man riding a bicycle on a major road at rush hour. The road goes from a four lane road to five lanes with a center turn lane. The fifth lane is a lane from the interstate off ramp that does not have a yield or stop sign. The 20 something was riding in what WAS the right lane when he hit the ramp lane. Now he is stuck between two lines of cars. Given we had left a stop light the traffic in his lane was not moving fast but the traffic flowing off the interstate was moving.

He needed to move to the off ramp lane to get over to the right. He made eye contact with the driver of a car and then he zipped in front of the car. The driver stood on the brakes to keep from hitting this kid. If the driver had hit the biker he would have been knocked off the bike and most likely run over. He almost certainly would have been dead. I just don't get why someone would risk so much for so little.

I don't see many kids riding on the back of MC. In fact I don't see many MC with more than one person. We drove past one of the Daytona exits on I95 during bike week and I don't remember seeing any kids on the back of bikes and the bikes were sitting on I95 going no where. Not sure what the fun was in sitting on I95. The Harley place was packed with people too.

I would guess more kids are hurt/killed by tractors just because they are around them more than riding on the back of a MC.

When I was a teenager before I had a driver license I worked on a farm where I ran a MF with a rotary cutter. That tractor impressed me but it taught me to respect it as well. What safety equipment? I used to drive it standing up trying to see the ground hog holes. Dang if you do or danged if you dont but hitting a hole was bad and would danged near flip you out of the seat. Standing up you had a chance to see and miss the hole.

Later that year I helped a teacher stack tobacco in barn. A very disgusting and dangerous job climbing dozens of feet in the air balanced on 2x4's while people passed you tobacco that would drop you. That tobacco would burn your eyes and nose as well as make you itch.

When we broke for lunch my teacher wanted us to hop up on the tractor fenders to ride to the house which the other guys did. Taint no way I was riding on the fenders. I knew that all it took was one rock, hole, stick or stump and off ye go. I could have ridden on the 3ph lower arms but I declined and walked.

Some people learn the hard way and some not at all. Why take the risk, even a low one, to save 60 seconds? Hurt or dead to save 60 seconds. Is it an good trade?

My area of NC has had quite a few people killed on MC's over the last few months. It has to average one or two a month. That is a pretty bad death rate when you look at how many miles are driven per death.

Later,
Dan