Editor’s View: It’s not beyond us to keep kids safer on ATVs
© Tim Scrivener The essence of farming culture is the broad streak of independence that runs through most farmers, as bold and wide as the bull bars on proper Defenders.
It’s surely not overstating it to say that the profession attracts people of that type – and rewards that behaviour – all the best farmers are great at independent problem solving.
For some, choosing the countryside is also a rejection of the greater amounts of petty bureaucracy in more built-up areas.
Not for them the continual encroachment of the additional layers of rules that define the existence of those in more urban areas – where to park, where to hang your washing out, where you can and can’t play Oasis or Luke Combs at full volume.
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And when bureaucrats do press in, whether they are from the government, assurance bodies or elsewhere, it goes some way to explaining why they often get a rough ride.
It’s an unpleasant reminder of the stifling number of rules and regs that have chipped away at the greater independence enjoyed by previous generations.
This is why in one area or another so many believe that some laws can and should be casually overlooked – and nowhere is this more apparent than that most thorny of issues – farm safety.
Too often people choose to overlook advice to wear a helmet when riding ATVs and ignore the law that states that children shouldn’t be a passenger on them – and those under 13 are prohibited from using them at work.
I am sympathetic to the broader arguments around the impracticality of removing children from farmyards as childcare is unaffordable or unavailable, as well as the appeal that excluding them is losing an opportunity to excite and educate them about farming.
Nor will you find me opposing the sentiment that we cannot and should not wrap children in cotton wool – and that it is impossible to protect them from all risk.
But too often those who make those arguments the loudest are unwilling to acknowledge that there is a trade off to that freedom – the increased risk that their child may be seriously injured or die.
So it was welcome this week to hear Cumbrian farmer John Geldard call for new thinking and action on this issue – urging the government to press ahead with imposing a duty on ATV manufacturers to fit more safety equipment to prevent deaths from crushing.
Indeed, this is something that HSE are actively investigating – studying rear-mounted circular or straight bars designed to reduce the number of riders that get crushed when a vehicle flips over.
It may not be a silver bullet. When touted as a solution to reducing deaths in Australia manufacturers grumbled loudly that the data wasn’t there to back it up.
When it was imposed as law, they took their machines out of the market rather than comply.
But appeals to common sense haven’t worked and lives are still being lost. This is surely not an issue it is beyond our wits to solve.
Rather than just grumble, if we are too independent to follow the rules then let’s come up with another solution that both suits our industry and keeps kids safe.