A letter to a Norfolk tractor driver

Exfarmer

Member
Location
Bury St Edmunds
This is an open letter to the young tractor driver from Norfolk, just in case he is on here. You will know who you are, if you were driving near Fakenham a couple of weeks ago and pushed my neighbour into the ditch by your grossly inconsiderate driving. I would like to assure you she is well thankfully and recovered from her bruises, although her confidence will take far longer. Her little grey car is luckily repairable, but the expense will be considerable to her insurance, as you did not stop to share your details.
It may not have been 100% your fault as, you may both, have been driving too fast in the circumstance, but she believes the fact that the phone was stuck to your face certainly played a large part, and the fact you did not stop indicates you obviously either did not notice her, or drove on, in the hope she would not catch your details, in which you would have been correct.
What I find totally unforgivable is that you left a lady in the ditch on a country lane with absolutely not a care, as to whether she may have been seriously injured or dying!
Loutish , oafish behaviour such as this, gives all farmers a very bad name and will certainly lead to more calls, for tractors and their drivers to be bought under a much stricter regime of testing, and other restrictions particularly on younger irresponsible drivers
 

uztrac

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
fakenham-norfolk
Living very close to your event that happened I fully concur with your comments. All to often it revolves around having a telephone jammed to their ears and driving large tractors fully laden with one hand ( at best ) steering the unit.
 

P.O.T

Member
Most modern tractors come equip with Bluetooth. Hard to believe these young guys can't workout how to use it. Weights and speeds have gone up considerably it seems in the last 10 years and the drivers seem to get younger... Not a good combination. Just gives farming industry a bad name in the eyes of public which we could do without.
 

traineefarmer

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Mid Norfolk
Endemic behaviour round here I'm afraid. It could so easily have been repeat of the indecent near Swaffham a few years ago when some pillock on cocaine flattened a car on a back road.

Following tractors in a tailback for over 10 miles give you time to wonder if they are have no respect for other road users by nature or if they are acting on instructions of their manager to get back to the field/base as fast as possible at any cost.
 

uztrac

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
fakenham-norfolk
Endemic behaviour round here I'm afraid. It could so easily have been repeat of the indecent near Swaffham a few years ago when some pillock on cocaine flattened a car on a back road.

Following tractors in a tailback for over 10 miles give you time to wonder if they are have no respect for other road users by nature or if they are acting on instructions of their manager to get back to the field/base as fast as possible at any cost.
A large Fendt was involved,killing the lady driver of the car.
 

Robt

Member
Location
Suffolk
These will be the same stupid drivers that happily post on Facebook slogans like “don’t moan about a farmer with your mouth full” or “you will be happy to see a tractor when it snows ....” surely you could soon find out who the driver was? If you know where the crash happened. A few hours watching tractors go past could soon bring results
 

spin cycle

Member
Location
north norfolk
wife was forced off the road by teleporter pulling bale trailer with bale on spikes...heading west into the sun one evening summer but one.....same summer one of our neighbours was chasing after a guy carting straw for a pig unit who was driving like a loon

kit is to big/heavy now that they need to be driven to hgv standard really IMO.....there must be illegal wt trailers on roads now....companies selling 20t trailers....god knows what they weigh laden but hgv guys get fined heavily if overweight

that said our local estates drivers are brilliant....definitly showing a responsible ethos being transmitted from higher up
 
Endemic behaviour round here I'm afraid. It could so easily have been repeat of the indecent near Swaffham a few years ago when some pillock on cocaine flattened a car on a back road.

Following tractors in a tailback for over 10 miles give you time to wonder if they are have no respect for other road users by nature or if they are acting on instructions of their manager to get back to the field/base as fast as possible at any cost.
That oxygen thief Henry Bett!

 

Raider112

Member
I’m not saying it didn’t happen, but there’s nothing quite like social media for putting one side of a story over from a second hand account, for us all to make pious judgements on.

The kangaroo court is now in session.......
It's not as if anyone was named or could be identified by anything that was in the post. Not that they shouldn't be named though, some of them seem to think it's fashionable to be on the phone.
 

Hesston4860s

Member
Location
Nr Lincoln
wife was forced off the road by teleporter pulling bale trailer with bale on spikes...heading west into the sun one evening summer but one.....same summer one of our neighbours was chasing after a guy carting straw for a pig unit who was driving like a loon

kit is to big/heavy now that they need to be driven to hgv standard really IMO.....there must be illegal wt trailers on roads now....companies selling 20t trailers....god knows what they weigh laden but hgv guys get fined heavily if overweight


that said our local estates drivers are brilliant....definitly showing a responsible ethos being transmitted from higher up

I know of an outfit that cart corn to a mill with a huge trailer behind a Fastrac and gross out at over 40 ton.
 

Andrew

Never Forgotten
Honorary Member
Location
Huntingdon, UK
I know of an outfit that cart corn to a mill with a huge trailer behind a Fastrac and gross out at over 40 ton.

Several outfits within 30 miles of here that do this. Not going to end well for any of us.

is agric wt limit still 25 t :scratchhead:.....also don't hgv's getting fined £1000/t if overloaded:scratchhead:....if so really if stopped thats a £15k fine....it's also unfair on insurers....and the rest of us by bringing threat of more draconian regs

No, 31t gross of which 18.29t trailer. Correct, £1/kg for being overweight.

but 20t capacity trailers are being sold :scratchhead:

Nothing wrong with that, I'm not sure there's a car sold in the UK that can't do over 70mph. Most tractors will do 50k if not 65k. One farm we go to is 2000 acre ring fenced, so could pull 40t capacity trailers if he so wished.
 

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