Hay Ride Dangers

[BB_TX]

Saw in the paper yesterday where an 8 yr old girl died on a hay ride. She was riding on a wagon pulled by a tractor when she fell off and was run over by the wagon. I have read a number of posts on here over the years of some putting together a hay ride. Be careful. It could happen to anyone.

 

[BlacknTan]

My heart goes out to this poor child's family. One never expects a fun family outing to result in the death of a loved one...

Unfortunately, the world is a dangerous place. The simple act of waking up in the morning carries risks.... ENOUGH SAFETY and letting others who purportedly know more making MY world a safer place to live. I'd much prefer making those judgements for myself, Thank You!!

I hope this tragic accident does not result in complete roll cages and safety harnesses for everyone wishing to enjoy a simple hay ride. If so, another piece of Americana will be lost...

Paperwork and "Safety" has gone a looong way toward putting a stranglehold on Industry in this country... I hope it does not happen to our recreation also!!


Safety Police beware! I prefer to rely on my own common sense!

 

[EddieWalker]

Bill,

Thanks for the heads up. I'm new to hay rides myself, so they seem like allot of fun. The possibility of somebody falling off and getting run over is my biggest concern, so I'm extra concious of this. Having a reminder of how dangerous and real this is will also help to keep me alert and diligent.

Thanks,
Eddie

 

[RoyJackson]

The big thing with hay rides is adequate adult supervision.

 

[Bird]

Bill, you know my wife and I worked one summer in a big RV resort and campground in Virginia. They had a wide variety of activities, including a hayride each evening. It was a pretty big wagon pulled by an older, but good, Ford tractor. Of course I used that tractor and wagon to move picnic tables and other equipment at times, but then came a time that the boss lady asked me to do the hayride. I told her the rig was too unsafe; just a big flat bed wagon with hay bales around the perimeter, a tractor with no rear view mirrors, other vehicular and pedestrian traffic on the premises, and no employee on the wagon to watch the kids. I told her I wanted to see their actual liability insurance policy to see if it covered individual employees before I'd drive for the hayride. She was not happy with me, and made one of the younger full time employees (who needed the job) do the hayride that evening but we built side boards for the wagon the next day. And she never asked me to do the hayride again.

 

[BB_TX]

Growing up in small town TX more years ago than I care to remember, I went on a number of hay rides. Looking back now, I realize how dangerous they were. Safety was not a particular issue back then. We sometimes rode on flat bed wagons with our legs hanging over the side and jumping off an on as the wagon was moving.

 

[Soundguy]

Roy hit on the big part of the equation. Adult supervision.. and by that.. i don't mean the adult driving.. I mean the adult setting back in the wagon with the kids.

I do a hay ride a few times a year with a 16' trailer. I've done it various ways.. IE.. with handrails etc.. but best I've found so far is good positive seating.. IE.. hay bales.. and no loose seating.. IE.. no unsecure chairs.. and no setting on the fenders.

HAve 1 or preferably 2 or more adults back with the kids.. depending on the size of the wagon / amount of kids.

Also.. if possible.. use some lighting.

i usually rig xmas tree lamps and a couple house style lamps with low wattage bulbs. This is good so everyone can see a bit.. especially if there is singing from songbooks. I use a car battery and a hi-wattage inverter for power.

A SMV plaque for the back of the trailer, and if possible.. hook up the flashers on the trailer. if the tractor does not have a flasher adapter.. you can buy a 3$ flasher relay and wire it up with some spade clips and gator clips to that battery that is running the rest of the lamps. then just bare the wire ends.. fold them back over ( 14ga works good ) and slide them into the trailer plug, fold over and electrical tape.. this way you can get running lamps and flashers on the towed trailer.. for about 3$ of parts and a couple feet of wire and some spade terminals.. takes about 5 minutes.

If you want to get fancy.. and have e-brakes ont he trailer.. you can pick up a 35$ e-brake controller and just wire it up to the trailer plug and forget about the brake switch.. and just use the manual panick switch on it.. In case of tractor brake loss.. the ebrake controller can manually engage the trailer brakes... It's just a 2-wire hookup.. again.. takes 5 minutes... mount it on the tractor 3pt control with e-tape or a bunji cord so it is easy to grab..

Lastly... GO SLOW.. be as safe as possible.. and have fun.

Remember to use the lmaps and flashers on the tractor too.

Soundguy

 

[schmism]

The big thing with hay rides is adequate adult supervision.

+1

 

[Farmwithjunk]

The big thing with hay rides is adequate adult supervision.

Uh...The last hayride I had, the biggest thing was how to supervise the ADULTS. The kids weren't any trouble. Their parents were.

Guess we have to define what constitutes an adult

 

[jinman]

Growing up in small town TX more years ago than I care to remember, I went on a number of hay rides. Looking back now, I realize how dangerous they were. Safety was not a particular issue back then. We sometimes rode on flat bed wagons with our legs hanging over the side and jumping off an on as the wagon was moving.

I can remember my last hayride when I was in high school. It was on the back of a flatbed truck and we went about 15 miles to a place in the country for a wiener roast and then 15 miles back to town. The truck had short sideboards, but that was it. I don't think that could be repeated today, nor would I want it to be repeated.

My neighbor has a hayride for his grandkids and their friends every fall around halloween. They stay on the county road about a mile long, but pull the trailer behind a van. I've never been fond of that method, but at least they put a grown-up on the trailer with the kids.