Head phones should be banned, jogger stopped on the verge to let me drive past with pickup on a lane and then promptly went to start jogging again and nearly went under the trailer I was towing ,if I had been paying as much attention as them they would have gone under the trailerIt never ceases to amaze me how many people walk down lanes with their back to oncoming traffic, often with headphones in
Are the General public completely oblivious to the dangers of large farm machinery?
- Thread starter Phil P
- Start date
25 years ago ish working 120 milk cows up the village and local school teacher comes to end of her drive sees cows comeing in Direction she going so she pulled out into middle of road and put handbrake on and sat and waited to the cows squeezed past you cant teach commen sence.
Some just aren't used to narrow lanes. We had a guest in the holiday cottage a few years ago that was so traumatised by our 15th century highways that they parked up their car for the entire 2 weeks and used taxis to get about.
It should be a mandatory part of the driving test that you can reverse competently while a Artic/tractor/combine or whatever is bearing down on you.
And the one piece of advice from my learn to drive days many years ago was only pull over for stuff you can’t tow out of the ditch
And the one piece of advice from my learn to drive days many years ago was only pull over for stuff you can’t tow out of the ditch
- Location
- Worcestershire
Find it amussing how people all have a story to tell on this thread of near misses etc and that it is non agri people who are to blame but over on the wreckers thread it is all about us agri folk that are at fault. Im affraid you cant teach stupid. But just some common fuxkin sence would not go a miss. If you are joe public have some consideration for ag machinery. Keep a distance and be aware, especially this time of year. Taking that extra time can be the difference between going home to your family or not. If you are a farmer then also do the above. Drive to suit roads, strap loads and treat everything and everyone as an unpredictable a$$hole. We will never stop stupid or stop accidents but we can help in not being or adding to a accident/death rate.
- Location
- South wales
I will do
glasshouse
Member
- Location
- lothians
What are u gibbering about
- Location
- West Wales
I was about to post this, the amount of people that don’t bother looking at what vehicle is coming behind them, step to the side and then step straight back out. I’ve had quite a few very close calls where I’ve been slower than crawling as I’ve seen they don’t know I’ve got a trailer and then they’ve stepped back in front of it. There is 1 pensioner locally who has a angry terrier and if he sees us or a quad coming chucks his terrier up on the hedge
Exfarmer
Member
- Location
- Bury St Edmunds
I would agree , they arevery dangerous, so isthe driver who gives the cyclist good room then forgets he has a trailer as he cuts back in hard. Or the second car who does not realise that cyclists do tend to get pulled outwards by a vehicle passing and give absolutely no room.
I think we can all agree the motoring public has a lot of tossers who should have never been given a licence, if they have!
Flatland guy
Member
- Location
- Lincolnshire
I have been saying for the last few years, prior to taking driving test for car, should have undergone a one hour tutorial/ seminar of small groups of people to have a basic understanding of large vehicles(lorries/coaches) making wide left turns etc, oversize vehicles and safe passing places etc and the decisions that can help everyone for better traffic flow in cities and rural roads, it is as if upon seeing an oversize vehicle/ abnormal load people panic and freeze, during the test the examiner perhaps only need to ask one question about this but what could be done if a lorry turning left etc might just help the problem on roads today.
warksfarmer
Member
A few of days ago while combining a field with a footpath alone one side I had a very near miss with a member of the public!
The footpath was clear as I’d started cutting along it andI was chopping the straw so a lot of dust blowing towards the path.
Well, a woman had walked at pace and got into my blind spot trying overtake the machine and getting totally covered in chaff in the process.
Anyway as I got to the corner and started to reverse the header came within inches of flattening her. Luckily I saw her at the very last minute, but she was totally obvious to the danger she was putting herself in for the sake of not holding back for what would have been less than a minute.
Then today as I was turning left off the main road with the combine I had a car almost run into the back of the combine as yet again they couldn’t wait for a few seconds!
Then I was then told of a couple incident locally over the past few days involving combines, one involving a motorcyclist that ended really badly.
Is more public education desperately needed about the dangers of large ag machines not only on the road but in the field also?
Everyone seems to be so impatient these days and will literally risk their life to get past a machine, even on foot or on a push bike it’s like a race, it’s just plain crazy!!
Thoughts?
It’s called having no common sense and coronavirus has proven at least 50% of this countries population has zero common sense which means there’s about 32 million idiots walking around oblivious to danger.
GeorgeK
Member
- Location
- Leicestershire
Our addiction to constant information overload is getting completely out of hand. Phones get checked several times a minute, if you can't do that because you're jogging then make sure you've got music on the headphones that also let you make phone calls, because heaven forbid your mind might have a moment of peace when all you are left with is reality and living in the moment.
Youth is passing kids by, replaced with a narcissistic virtual reality of Instagram filters and dreams of becoming 'influencers.'
Youth is passing kids by, replaced with a narcissistic virtual reality of Instagram filters and dreams of becoming 'influencers.'
- Location
- South wales
Well I’ve learnt something today never even occurred to me that
- Location
- West Wales
Just the same as a car being pulled sidewards by a passing curtainsider
- Location
- South wales
Exfarmer
Member
- Location
- Bury St Edmunds
it is the wind created by the air filling the space the car van tractor has just made. Normally absolutely no issue as you ride with this in mind.
- Location
- Yorkshire
None of this is new though is it, I used to escort combines around when I worked for a contractor in a Land Rover with a board on the front that said WIDE LOAD ESCORT VEHICLE with beacons, lights etc, used to flag down motorists, they'd just look at you gone out, wagon drivers were about the only ones that pulled in! As others have said, perhaps mobile phones are more to blame and the tech in vehicles than they were 20 years ago. The amount people that still think its acceptable to text etc while driving is astonishing.
Wow turned that around didn't you , how you can get from a jogger who's not aware of what's going on around them to a trailer not giving enough room to cyclist's is beyond me . I suppose the lad I knew who road his bike out onto a main road and went under a car because he had ear phones and a lack of awareness was not to blame for his misfortune.
Why can you ride a bike or a horse on a road without some form of training or insurance. Nobody else can
5) Farmer so busy looking over the hedge to see what his neighbour(s) is/are doing that his Landrover/Pick Up/ Gator meanders across the highway/lane
6) other unnecessary distractions ...
borderterribles
Member
- Location
- South Shropshire
Yes, but probably only very briefly!