Are the General public completely oblivious to the dangers of large farm machinery?

Phil P

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
North West
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?
 

JWL

Member
Location
Hereford
That's the time to stay in the cab, roll a smoke, pour out a drink as it takes a few minutes for them to work it out but if it does then it's best for you to be comfortable.
These stand off's have happened for years, best one I had was on the Clopton Bridge in Stratford on Avon with a combine on Terra Tyres.
 

Agriimark

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Worcestershire
That's the time to stay in the cab, roll a smoke, pour out a drink as it takes a few minutes for them to work it out but if it does then it's best for you to be comfortable.
These stand off's have happened for years, best one I had was on the Clopton Bridge in Stratford on Avon with a combine on Terra Tyres.
Been over that bridge a few times with tractor and 6 furrow plough. Had an idiot everytime who cant wait and drives blind
 

Phil P

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
North West
That's the time to stay in the cab, roll a smoke, pour out a drink as it takes a few minutes for them to work it out but if it does then it's best for you to be comfortable.
These stand off's have happened for years, best one I had was on the Clopton Bridge in Stratford on Avon with a combine on Terra Tyres.
It’s not so much of a stand off, more like kamikaze pilots 🤦‍♂️. I think the lockdowns have increased the rate at which people are losing the power to think for themselves.
 

snipe

Member
Location
west yorkshire
Had to throw a guy out of the field the other day, was a slight bit of dust blowing towards the footpath at the side of the field so he thought it would be better for his health to walk straight across the field between 6 vehicles moving around collecting bales🤷‍♂️🙈.
was moving the combine last year down a narrow road and cars had to pull tight to the hedge so I could get past. Had a jogger try to overtake me by squeezing between me and on coming cars, he kept this up for about 500meters.
definitely getting worse, but it not just agricultural machinery. People have no perception of what is happening around them, Think we would be better getting rid of some health and safety and handing out more Darwin awards.
 
People in general now live very very 'safe' lives. As such a lot of us have definitely lost our sense of self-preservation or ability to detect what constitutes risk. It is an odds-on bet that virtually everyone on this forum has damaged a piece of machinery or seen, first or second hand, what speed and weight can do, be it to a gate-post, a machine, a car or a limb. In particular you have a lot more people in the UK venturing into the countryside the last 18 months or so. People who just don't understand that machinery goes backwards as well as forwards, and why should they? They wouldn't venture into a quarry for a walk so would have no clue what all the loud noises do, out on farmland is similarly alien. Out on the road I do think a lot of people are mesmerised by machinery or else they are too focused on their speedometer these days which is an unfortunate side-effect of speed cameras.

I do think that when on the road in machinery we have a lot more responsibility and also control of the situation and traffic around us than we might realise. The position of your vehicle, your escorts and so forth can put you in a commanding position of the road and help govern overall safety. Where this falls down is when people act in a way that they would not ordinarily do for any other road going vehicle and decide to overtake or pass in a way they would never do in normal traffic.
 

Al R

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
West Wales
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 been like that for years..
A friend was driving a combine with 20’ header behind the combine up a seriously steep hill which is a continuous left had bend, a motorbike overtook the header and then realised there was a combine in front, the driver said all he saw on the camera on the combine was the tail lights of the motorbike between the combine and the header for around half a mile 😮
Seen plenty of people have close shaves and hits by cars into tractors/trailers as they’ve gone and done a big sweeping bend to get into gateways.
A friend had a cyclist tailgating him on his sprayer, he was that close that when he turned a 90’ corner on a back road he wiped the cyclist off with the boom. (12/24m boom so hardly long)
 

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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