“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Benjamin Franklin’s wisdom emphasized the importance of taking preventive measures to avoid larger problems later on, and that holds true especially when it comes to tractor safety. University of Wisconsin Extension Agricultural Safety and Health Specialist John Shutske says one way to prevent problems is to avoid extra riders on the equipment.
“It can be a child, it can be an adult as well, you know, you hit a bump or you just basically, you get distracted for just a short period of time, like a couple of seconds, and if you topple off of that tractor and get run over, if you’re out on the highway, it could involve other vehicles. If it’s out in the field, I have investigated some just really horrible incidents. So the prevention rule there is really one seat, one rider.”
Shutske says another dangerous proposition is bypassing starting.
“People who have older tractors or even some of the smaller utility tractors from the 1960s and 70s, you can still theoretically start that tractor from the ground if you have access to the starter. And what would happen is people may, you know, they might have to do a jump start on a tractor or they do some type of a repair and they don’t want to necessarily climb up over the back of the tractor to get onto the seat to start the tractor. So they try to start it from the ground and the problem is the tractor, as soon as it starts, if the tractor is in gear, it lunges forward and what would happen is we’d see people getting run over and crushed.”
Lastly, Shutske cautions operators to use all precautions when taking the tractor on the road.
“Accidents and injuries and collisions on the highway, this time of the year, that is absolutely huge. You know, you’ve got to have the slow-moving vehicle emblem. You’ve got to have, even though the state law does not require it on all machinery, amber flashers visible at all times, night and daytime, and those should also double as turn signals.”