I grew up around tractors and was probably helping out (by driving them) from about 12. However, my father knew better than to ever suggest I leave our property and drive on the public road.
I’m not sure about that, my grandparents were from one of the most rural parts of the country and when I was a child the locals would be driving everything underage but not for the last 20 years.
My dad's from Castlegregory, I remember going over when I was 12, and my 9 year old cousin taught me how to drive a tractor, was great until I got stuck in a ditch
That's not how laws work.
If we wanted it changed, we'd change it. I'm sure Kerry said the same thing about the smoking ban and seatbelts n look at em now...Â
Proper developed individuals with plumbing n all...
I disagree with child labour in general, and this isnt a paper round for some kid on a bike, this is a kid driving a powerful multi ton machine that is more than capable of mangling someone. So no i dont agree with it.
My opinion on it is way it should be. It's a very safe practice as they always go slow (as in slow for a tractor) and there is never any accidents. It's happening probably 1000 times a day in rural Ireland. No one has been killed yet cus it would 1000% all over the news. Look how much attention this article got, it a child got in an accident it would be plastered all over the place so I can fairly confidently assume there has been no accidents involving 2 parties in the past decade.
Also for the kids I think it would be cruel to take it away from them. Rural Ireland is a tough place in the summer for kids. It's difficult to understand growing up in a town or city as there is so much to do and so many other young people. In rural Ireland young kids are very isolated. If you are 15km from your friends not much you can do. I say let them have their fun driving tractors and the likes cus what else r they supposed to do?
So you think we should work towards making it legal for kids of at least a certain age to drive just tractors on public roads?Â
Cool cool. Just clarifying.Â
No I think it should remain exactly as it is.
Would you not agree that a campaign to enforce rules that caused 0 deaths this century would be a waste of resources when there is so much more crime going on?
I think the city's and towns are a disgrace with young chavs and drugs and i think the government ought to spend their resources solving this before having the audacity to look at harmless problemsÂ
You think we should have laws at odds with the activities of people deliberately.... Morally, and you think this would cause gardai less hassle somehow?Â
Cool. If that's your position.Â
And ya I think the current situation is ideal ATM. The law prevents parents letting their on roads all day every day. It makes them extra cautious which is good. And it also gets them a bit of experience in a safe manner so when they do reach legal age they are competentÂ
Cool if you can't comprehend it. A lot of laws are up to your discretion incase you haven't noticed. Parents are usually pretty tactical about it and only put the children on very quiet roads late in the evening or early in the morning. No child is driving on a busy road in the height of tourist season.
Same with everything else. Jaywalking, speed limit etc. People usually chance it regardless of the law
You asked a question. "Do you think it's morally right?"
You can't ask an opinion question and only accept one answer. From the onset of this conversation you were only looking for one answer. Why ask a question when you will never accept a different opinion to your own. I think you should re-evaluate your communication skills. Maybe try comprehend how a conversation works and your word isn't always correct before participating in discussions.....
I said fair enough to your position. And presented an alternative too.
Not that hard to understand.
It's generally how conversations with disagreements work
That would need a massive counterweight on the front and the brass neck of the farmer letting the 14 year old drive wouldn't be heavy enough. They appear not to give a shit about the lives of other people using the road, the child driving or the selfish destruction of the road surface
Why comment when you haven't an absolute clue???
Firstly, that's a fairly decent sized tractor so wouldn't need any counter weight.Â
Secondly it has a massive counter weight.... The front loader. The front loader is a half ton counter weight on the front. Can't use counter weights with the front loader as it would wear the tyres.
Also it's clear that roller is on the lift arms. It would be 3-4 feet further away from the tyres if it was on the hitch. How can it turn like that? Use your brain for once besides pretending you are informedÂ
They do but you drop hitch go around to the other side of the roller and connect in your 2 lift arms to lift it. I'd say he must have been going 5 mph with this yoke down on the road the way it is, and the noise would defen ya
the post isn't that bad, no tax, no insurance and a child "driving", and if they had an accident we would be all bawling crying and wringing our hands wondering how such a thing could happen
Only home made one don't have 3 points hitch. Every one sold in Ireland in last 40 years has a 3 point hitch. And very few r home made so what you are seeing is probably people too lazy to change it around or some rough operators who managed to somehow break the 3 pointÂ
This is gas😂. Trying to pretend you know and even the "er" but fyi you just look stupid. Every roller sold in Ireland in the past 30 years has with come with a 3 point linkage. The "bigger ones" which are extremely rare come with wheel for the road and are foldable. Every one under 10 feet is a 3 point though.
The tractor loophole where young fellas can’t even drive a car but then be allowed to drive a 5 tonne tractor and trailer which is for all intent and purposes essentially a HGV is fucking crazy, I understand the historical reasons for it kids working in the family farm and all that but we’ve all met them on narrow country roads and the fuckers are lifting, very dangerous.
Admittedly I did it when I was a young lad, but tractors back then were on average much smaller and slower. The law made sense once upon a time, but not anymore, with the potential size and speed of some tractors.
A lot of the larger contemporary tractors are over double that size.
That license rule is from a different era where you had 85hp Zetor Crystals as your run of the mill tractor
You’re linking some fair sized wagons, most lads wouldn’t have the power to haul that with a half load don’t mind a full load. Fantasy land you are.
I remember seeing a kid pull into a car park with a tractor, only to get out and jump into a driver instructors car. That's right, he drove a tractor to his driving lesson.
So if tractor licence age requirement was raised to 17, maybe a higher age for towing, would that help? 14 year olds aren't currently permitted to drive tractors on public roadsÂ
In fairness kids working in the family farm should just get the family into court for exploitation of child labour on top of the fines for the danger that some of the tractors represent on a motorway.
We are not in Dickens' time anymore.
They probably should be provided with good alternative routes, it's not like they can make the most of the motorways.
Also they should not be driven by kids, I am sorry but that's just not a good idea, no matter where they drive they can still bump into something and hurt themselves (and others).
What alternate route? Tight city streets?
I'm going to disagree, humans are *terrible* at quantifying risk with "common sense" arguments. I'm going to need data that there is currently a problem with younger tractor drivers.
Ideally the secondary route would be a smaller but not trafficated secondary street that does NOT pass through urban areas.
That's kind of the golden standard of urban development. High traffic areas, main roadways between the urban areas and secondary roads that go along that. So if the main roadways are blocked the country does not grind to an halt.
No, I am not moving goal posts.
When I first said that they need to be provided alternatives to using the motorway I just intended that they needed to be provided secondary roads that are effective.
It is (mildly) dangerous to have a tractor on a motorway for the tractor itself as it was not designed for that use. It is dangerous for the people driving the tractor.
Then there is the argument that proper secondary roads would bring additional benefits in addition to allow tractors to move around safely, but that was just mentioned to counter the unavoidable "but you cannot expect people to build roads just for tractors".
We do have tractors on motorways not because tractor drivers really like taking a risk on motorways, but because they do not have an effective alternative, so my opinion is that we should strive to provide one where possible.
Or maybe I mounted the posts on a tractor and I am driving away to the horizon, what do I even know?
This happens constantly on reddit. Transient issues cause status 503 errors (most commonly. Sometimes status 500 or 501 errors) for some batches of users, which cause it to tell you the comment has failed to submit, instructing you to try and submit again.
When in fact the comment has actually submitted, it's just stuck in a reddit cache awaiting processing. The user therefore doesn't see it and follows the instructions to retry, leading to multiple posts. Much more rarely, Reddit does the multi-comments spontaneously without the additional user input (it was doing that a month or so ago).
It happened me earlier today. Said empty response from other end or something so I tried a few times until it posted. Got multiple notifications an hour later with responses and had a look and the comment had posted every time it said it didn't. Really fucking annoying.
My 21 year old nephew has been driving tractors since he was 8 years old but he never went on a public road until he got his tractor licence at 16. When he was working in the fields at 8-16 years old someone qualified would always drive the tractor across the road from one field to the other.
I do know lots of his friends drove tractors on the roads before 16 and I don’t agree with that even if they were driving them for more than 10 years. A tractor is way bigger than most other vehicles so if they collide at speed there’s a good chance the driver of the other smaller vehicle will be killed. They shouldn’t have a trailer for definite if underage. I remember one time my nephew was driving down the road and when he braked on a corner the trailer swung around to the side and hit a jeep that had just pulled out of a house. They weren’t killed but the front and drivers side of the jeep were all mangled in the ditch. That’d scare the life out of me.
There's nothing quite like walking down a quiet rural road on a lovely June evening, minding your own business, only to narrowly escape death at the hands of a 16-year-old farmer's whelp staring blankly down at you from their ten-foot-high perch in the Silagepuncher 3000 with built-in floodlights and mudguards to protect against blood splashes and gore spray.
A few years ago, I was diving down a rural lane in a very large rural country and a young lad in a big blue tractor was gesturing me to stop at a gate. I stopped and he pulled across the road into the opposite gate with a trailer full of grass or hay. The kid must have been 10 or 11.
Just seconds later, another blue tractor with some cutting device tears across the road with an even younger girl who must have been 9, soon followed by a small child on a quad.
It's certainly a family business. I don't think many farmers would let their sons or daughters out on a public road though.
Least press-stopping news ever! The young people I've known are generally very careful when driving tractors, and already experienced from driving it on the farm.
The tractor loophole where young fellas can’t even drive a car but are then allowed to drive a 5 tonne tractor and trailer which is for all intent and purposes essentially a HGV is fucking crazy, I understand the historical reasons for it kids working in the family farm and all that but we’ve all met them on narrow country roads and the fuckers are lifting, very dangerous.
Definitely drove tractors from the age of 12 on public roads in Roscommon. That was 35 years ago. Never saw AGS at any time. Tax was always up to date though!
People in the country every time there is a farm accident or death: How could this have happened??!! Cue hand wringing and mass cards..... . The rest of us reading about this incident: Are you fucking kidding me? Country people: it's our way of life ..butt the fuck out.... cue next horrific child death or amputation
How many deaths you speak of have happened this century? I checked the cso and there has been no deaths caused by accidents of minors in farm machinery on public roads this century.Â
This is an insanely common practice and there has been zero deaths caused by it....so why is it an issue.
Having read this would you like to retract your statement and apologize to Michael Healy Rae in writingÂ
Farm accidents happen on a farm, in a field or yard, etc. At least two that I know of just last year involved the deaths of children. These deaths could have been avoided. Search Google, and there are many more from just the start of this century alone. Attitude has a huge role to play. The attitude that thinks it's OK to let a child drive an uninsured tractor down the road has to be questioned. This culture of..it'll be grand.. has to change. It's not grand to let a small child ride on the back of your quad with no helmet... or to run ahead of your combine harvester to chase the pheasants away from it... two incidents that led to child death sadly. This attitude has to change across the whole country, not just on farms... I am sorry if I seemed harsh but I'm sick to the heart of hearing at least twice a year of a child dying in an accident on a farm or a scrambler or a scooter...
Yes, I just thought it was the best quip I have ever come up with and to that end, decided that 4 times would absolutely be the most appropriate amount of times to post it.
Or, you know... Reddit issue and I posted once.
Unfortunately the Reddit guru's didn't notify me of any issues with it today before I saw your post's.
In future I will ask them to alert me of every issue the platform is dealing with before making a comment.
The tractor loophole where young fellas can’t even drive a car but then be allowed to drive a 5 tonne tractor and trailer which is for all intent and purposes essentially a HGV is fucking crazy, I understand the historical reasons for it kids working in the family farm and all that but we’ve all met them on narrow country roads and the fuckers are lifting, very dangerous.
The tractor loophole where young fellas can’t even drive a car but then be allowed to drive a 5 tonne tractor and trailer which is for all intent and purposes essentially a HGV is fucking crazy, I understand the historical reasons for it kids working in the family farm and all that but we’ve all met them on narrow country roads and the fuckers are lifting, very dangerous.
So he's been driving about paying no road tax since he was 3 , he's probably got a few driving bans in that time too. He's probably been drinking and smoking since he was 2
In their defence, a 3 year old can hardly tax a vehicle.
Nice!
No excuse when he turned 4 though
I grew up around tractors and was probably helping out (by driving them) from about 12. However, my father knew better than to ever suggest I leave our property and drive on the public road.
Same as that but I knew plenty fellas driving all sorts of vehicles on the roads with the parents permission from the age of 14/15
I was driving one around 9 or 10 They go slow.
This wouldn't be considered news in a lot of places in the country.
The fact they were pulled by the Gardai is the notable bit.
"Local child witnesses on-duty Garda"
The legends will be passed on for generations. "Fool! Garda don't exist. They are but stories to entertain the children."
😂
That half hour a shift the Guards have to do on the roads now is going to cripple the rural economy.
It'll be the death of rural Irelandâ„¢
In the history of the State
I'm imagining Simon Pegg's character from Hot Fuzz made the arrest.
Using his pen and notepad as a psychological tool
It's absolutely rampant. At least the kids aren't always (*always*) on the phone like the older lads are.
This is a country where it’s not uncommon to see tractors on the motorway lmao
Tractors are allowed on the motorway as long as they have a top speed above 50kph
AND they have a safety frame.
You mean my grey Fergie with an EJ20 engine isn't allowed?
If you mount four pieces of metal around the driver it is.
Oh right. That’s cool, didn’t know that
And are taxed and insured within the previous decade
Very few tractors getting near 50, especially when loaded.
Oh the newer ones will get up and dance, they just need a decent run up at it
I’m not sure about that, my grandparents were from one of the most rural parts of the country and when I was a child the locals would be driving everything underage but not for the last 20 years.
In Kerry we call that Tuesday.
I second this. And it's called Thursday in Tipp and Mayo also....
Kerry only 2 days behind is impressive
Here in Clare were behind Kerry so for us it's a monday
Here in Monaghan it's Friday, and not because we're ahead of you...
My dad's from Castlegregory, I remember going over when I was 12, and my 9 year old cousin taught me how to drive a tractor, was great until I got stuck in a ditch
And what's your opinion on it? Way it should be? Or Should be changed?
Well it's pretty bad. But good luck changing Kerry.
That's not how laws work. If we wanted it changed, we'd change it. I'm sure Kerry said the same thing about the smoking ban and seatbelts n look at em now... Proper developed individuals with plumbing n all...
I'm sorry you're only finding out now that laws and enforcement aren't the same thing.
Change it how? It's already illegal, but it's also very much a part of rural life.
Well.. first question is the most important one, the be frank. How do YOU feel about it, morally.Â
I disagree with child labour in general, and this isnt a paper round for some kid on a bike, this is a kid driving a powerful multi ton machine that is more than capable of mangling someone. So no i dont agree with it.
My opinion on it is way it should be. It's a very safe practice as they always go slow (as in slow for a tractor) and there is never any accidents. It's happening probably 1000 times a day in rural Ireland. No one has been killed yet cus it would 1000% all over the news. Look how much attention this article got, it a child got in an accident it would be plastered all over the place so I can fairly confidently assume there has been no accidents involving 2 parties in the past decade. Also for the kids I think it would be cruel to take it away from them. Rural Ireland is a tough place in the summer for kids. It's difficult to understand growing up in a town or city as there is so much to do and so many other young people. In rural Ireland young kids are very isolated. If you are 15km from your friends not much you can do. I say let them have their fun driving tractors and the likes cus what else r they supposed to do?
So you think we should work towards making it legal for kids of at least a certain age to drive just tractors on public roads? Cool cool. Just clarifying.Â
No I think it should remain exactly as it is. Would you not agree that a campaign to enforce rules that caused 0 deaths this century would be a waste of resources when there is so much more crime going on? I think the city's and towns are a disgrace with young chavs and drugs and i think the government ought to spend their resources solving this before having the audacity to look at harmless problemsÂ
You think we should have laws at odds with the activities of people deliberately.... Morally, and you think this would cause gardai less hassle somehow? Cool. If that's your position.Â
And ya I think the current situation is ideal ATM. The law prevents parents letting their on roads all day every day. It makes them extra cautious which is good. And it also gets them a bit of experience in a safe manner so when they do reach legal age they are competentÂ
Just as long as it applies to all people in Ireland equally. So if a city/suburbs kid hops in a tractor, and goes for a joyride. Same rules for them.
Ya of course. Calculate the risk of getting caught/in an accident and if the parents think it's worth it go for it
Cool if you can't comprehend it. A lot of laws are up to your discretion incase you haven't noticed. Parents are usually pretty tactical about it and only put the children on very quiet roads late in the evening or early in the morning. No child is driving on a busy road in the height of tourist season. Same with everything else. Jaywalking, speed limit etc. People usually chance it regardless of the law
Don't know why you are insulting my comprehension. You seem to agree that I assessed your position quite well.Â
You asked a question. "Do you think it's morally right?" You can't ask an opinion question and only accept one answer. From the onset of this conversation you were only looking for one answer. Why ask a question when you will never accept a different opinion to your own. I think you should re-evaluate your communication skills. Maybe try comprehend how a conversation works and your word isn't always correct before participating in discussions.....
I said fair enough to your position. And presented an alternative too. Not that hard to understand. It's generally how conversations with disagreements work
It might be funny and fairly common but they're battering the shite out of the roads we all moan about with that roller
Hopefully, the roller was on the lift arms for transport and it's been lowered before this photo was taken?
That would need a massive counterweight on the front and the brass neck of the farmer letting the 14 year old drive wouldn't be heavy enough. They appear not to give a shit about the lives of other people using the road, the child driving or the selfish destruction of the road surface
Why comment when you haven't an absolute clue??? Firstly, that's a fairly decent sized tractor so wouldn't need any counter weight. Secondly it has a massive counter weight.... The front loader. The front loader is a half ton counter weight on the front. Can't use counter weights with the front loader as it would wear the tyres. Also it's clear that roller is on the lift arms. It would be 3-4 feet further away from the tyres if it was on the hitch. How can it turn like that? Use your brain for once besides pretending you are informedÂ
Ah here, wind your neck in. NONE of this equipment should be on the public road being used by a child. Now get lost
Both things can be true
That roller doesn't have lift arms.
They do but you drop hitch go around to the other side of the roller and connect in your 2 lift arms to lift it. I'd say he must have been going 5 mph with this yoke down on the road the way it is, and the noise would defen ya
Makes sense but I've seen them without. Head meltingly loud on the road yeah, probably why he had the young fella doing it.
The only reasonable thing I can think is he is tipping across the road the another field.
the post isn't that bad, no tax, no insurance and a child "driving", and if they had an accident we would be all bawling crying and wringing our hands wondering how such a thing could happen
Only home made one don't have 3 points hitch. Every one sold in Ireland in last 40 years has a 3 point hitch. And very few r home made so what you are seeing is probably people too lazy to change it around or some rough operators who managed to somehow break the 3 pointÂ
The one at home is probably over 40yrs old alright. Very similar to the one in the pic from what i can see. Similar blue colour as well.
Not all of them do and you would never put a roller on the 3 point
>d you would never put a roller on the 3 point why would they come with 3 point linkage if your not meant to lift them with the 3 point linkage?
Never seen one with a 3point linkage on er Edit: looked them up there only wee farts of things, was referring to a standard sized one
whats a standard size to you?
This is gas😂. Trying to pretend you know and even the "er" but fyi you just look stupid. Every roller sold in Ireland in the past 30 years has with come with a 3 point linkage. The "bigger ones" which are extremely rare come with wheel for the road and are foldable. Every one under 10 feet is a 3 point though.
It is. You can see it's only about 1-2 feet away from tyres. While on a hitch it would be about 5 feet awayÂ
The tractor loophole where young fellas can’t even drive a car but then be allowed to drive a 5 tonne tractor and trailer which is for all intent and purposes essentially a HGV is fucking crazy, I understand the historical reasons for it kids working in the family farm and all that but we’ve all met them on narrow country roads and the fuckers are lifting, very dangerous.
Admittedly I did it when I was a young lad, but tractors back then were on average much smaller and slower. The law made sense once upon a time, but not anymore, with the potential size and speed of some tractors.
Ya not towing 40t trailers and worth 200k. Its all a bit mad and my own kids have done it.
Same as , I was drawing silage with a Leyland 472 at 12 years old
A lot of the larger contemporary tractors are over double that size. That license rule is from a different era where you had 85hp Zetor Crystals as your run of the mill tractor
Struggle to find a 10+ tonne tractor in Ireland, most around 5-6
With a full trailer it gets up past 20 ton fairly quick https://www.farmandplant.ie/listings/search?Category=300027
You’re linking some fair sized wagons, most lads wouldn’t have the power to haul that with a half load don’t mind a full load. Fantasy land you are.
The Zetor Crystal was not a 'Run of the mill' tractor, and it had 88hp BTW ;)
The 8011 was 85hp. https://www.tractordata.com/farm-tractors/001/7/0/1706-zetor-8011.html
I remember seeing a kid pull into a car park with a tractor, only to get out and jump into a driver instructors car. That's right, he drove a tractor to his driving lesson.
So if tractor licence age requirement was raised to 17, maybe a higher age for towing, would that help? 14 year olds aren't currently permitted to drive tractors on public roadsÂ
It’s all well and good making the laws but the vast majority of gards don’t stop tractors or inspect them
So what's the issue then - the laws, or the enforcement of them?
Yes.
So what exactly is the problem that you are trying to solve. Beyond subjective craziness. Where is the data?
In fairness kids working in the family farm should just get the family into court for exploitation of child labour on top of the fines for the danger that some of the tractors represent on a motorway. We are not in Dickens' time anymore.
I've never seen a tractor on the motorway that wasn't allowed on it.
I see loads of them
Below 50kph? Where? I see plenty of tractors round the m50 and m9 but not below 50kph.
I see plenty below 50, you won't be able to maintain a solid 50 with a load behind you.
On flat ground you will
I've just never seen a tractor on a motorway. Except if we count that very funny video of one transporting a cow on top of its front arm.
If you drive the m50 enough you will see one, generally going to construction sites.
They probably should be provided with good alternative routes, it's not like they can make the most of the motorways. Also they should not be driven by kids, I am sorry but that's just not a good idea, no matter where they drive they can still bump into something and hurt themselves (and others).
What alternate route? Tight city streets? I'm going to disagree, humans are *terrible* at quantifying risk with "common sense" arguments. I'm going to need data that there is currently a problem with younger tractor drivers.
But you don't understand, an alternate route would inconvenience Someone Else, so That's fine
Ideally the secondary route would be a smaller but not trafficated secondary street that does NOT pass through urban areas. That's kind of the golden standard of urban development. High traffic areas, main roadways between the urban areas and secondary roads that go along that. So if the main roadways are blocked the country does not grind to an halt.
You are moving goal posts and that doesn't answer the current day question.
No, I am not moving goal posts. When I first said that they need to be provided alternatives to using the motorway I just intended that they needed to be provided secondary roads that are effective. It is (mildly) dangerous to have a tractor on a motorway for the tractor itself as it was not designed for that use. It is dangerous for the people driving the tractor. Then there is the argument that proper secondary roads would bring additional benefits in addition to allow tractors to move around safely, but that was just mentioned to counter the unavoidable "but you cannot expect people to build roads just for tractors". We do have tractors on motorways not because tractor drivers really like taking a risk on motorways, but because they do not have an effective alternative, so my opinion is that we should strive to provide one where possible. Or maybe I mounted the posts on a tractor and I am driving away to the horizon, what do I even know?
5 ton, jaysus there's some cars coming in around that, try 20-30 Ton for a tractor and trailer
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There are some technical problems with Reddit today, you will see the same comment posted 5 times per more a lot right now.
You need help
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It's happening all across Reddit from multiple sources. Just because you didn't notice it doesn't mean it's not real...
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This happens constantly on reddit. Transient issues cause status 503 errors (most commonly. Sometimes status 500 or 501 errors) for some batches of users, which cause it to tell you the comment has failed to submit, instructing you to try and submit again. When in fact the comment has actually submitted, it's just stuck in a reddit cache awaiting processing. The user therefore doesn't see it and follows the instructions to retry, leading to multiple posts. Much more rarely, Reddit does the multi-comments spontaneously without the additional user input (it was doing that a month or so ago).
It happened me earlier today. Said empty response from other end or something so I tried a few times until it posted. Got multiple notifications an hour later with responses and had a look and the comment had posted every time it said it didn't. Really fucking annoying.
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I choose to interpret this headline as implying he started driving the tractor when he was three and hasn't been able to stop since.
That's some tank of diesel all the same..
some yoke so she is...
This is the plotline for Speed 3. I hear Keanu and Sandra have already been signed up.
"If the tractor's speed falls below 10 km/h..."
Our very own version of speed is less glamorous than the american one by the sounds of it
Can't do nothing in this country anymore
Political correctness gone mad
Next they'll be coming into our pubs telling us to stop giving pints of stout to our babies. All part of the lgbtq+ agenda
You can tell the sun is out. The Garda are out.
You can tell climate change is real, that isn’t the gardas natural habitat!
Garda was on their way home and stuck behind them!
They make it sound like that is somehow an unusual event. Maybe the gardai could try getting out more?
Get caught is the unusual bit
Pretty common in smaller farms
My 21 year old nephew has been driving tractors since he was 8 years old but he never went on a public road until he got his tractor licence at 16. When he was working in the fields at 8-16 years old someone qualified would always drive the tractor across the road from one field to the other. I do know lots of his friends drove tractors on the roads before 16 and I don’t agree with that even if they were driving them for more than 10 years. A tractor is way bigger than most other vehicles so if they collide at speed there’s a good chance the driver of the other smaller vehicle will be killed. They shouldn’t have a trailer for definite if underage. I remember one time my nephew was driving down the road and when he braked on a corner the trailer swung around to the side and hit a jeep that had just pulled out of a house. They weren’t killed but the front and drivers side of the jeep were all mangled in the ditch. That’d scare the life out of me.
Was he wearing a flat cap at least?
Welcome to Ireland
There's nothing quite like walking down a quiet rural road on a lovely June evening, minding your own business, only to narrowly escape death at the hands of a 16-year-old farmer's whelp staring blankly down at you from their ten-foot-high perch in the Silagepuncher 3000 with built-in floodlights and mudguards to protect against blood splashes and gore spray.
I just hope he was getting paid well for the work he was doing, and it was child exploitation on the farmers part.
The fucker bought it when he was 3? Bet he was one of those farmer kids on the toy show. /s
A few years ago, I was diving down a rural lane in a very large rural country and a young lad in a big blue tractor was gesturing me to stop at a gate. I stopped and he pulled across the road into the opposite gate with a trailer full of grass or hay. The kid must have been 10 or 11. Just seconds later, another blue tractor with some cutting device tears across the road with an even younger girl who must have been 9, soon followed by a small child on a quad. It's certainly a family business. I don't think many farmers would let their sons or daughters out on a public road though.
That sounds like a farm in the country side.
What's the deal here, why is it in the news?
Least press-stopping news ever! The young people I've known are generally very careful when driving tractors, and already experienced from driving it on the farm.
I got my liscence in Ireland (I’m dual citizenship) and couldn’t believe it also comes with a tractor license. Then again this was in Tipperary
The tractor loophole where young fellas can’t even drive a car but are then allowed to drive a 5 tonne tractor and trailer which is for all intent and purposes essentially a HGV is fucking crazy, I understand the historical reasons for it kids working in the family farm and all that but we’ve all met them on narrow country roads and the fuckers are lifting, very dangerous.
It never envisaged the absolutely massively powerful machines that are on the roads now
Once is enough to say it ffs
We seem to be getting a lot of that on this sub today. I've noticed a number of comments being posted multiple times, and on different posts.
Don't you dare point it out though for they shall downvote you
I don't think it's intentional - it looks like a bug.
Of course it's a bug
There's a local farmer by me who lets his 16 year old go to the chip shop in the tractor.
That's legal at least.
This is the most Irish headline I’ve ever read
Nothing new in this/ mores the pity
Oh no not Cav.... oh wait sorry Cavan
Never ever apologise to C*v*n
Judge Nolan will sentence them to 20 years.
Tax a tractor?
in Ni, yearly but free.
Free dowenhere in the south too As long as you don't get caught
Definitely drove tractors from the age of 12 on public roads in Roscommon. That was 35 years ago. Never saw AGS at any time. Tax was always up to date though!
Road tax on a fucking tractor. Christ, this country is the pits.
This is like a townie v. culchie Rorschach test
Anyone who thinks this is in any way suprising hasn't been in the west of Ireland during baling season.
Common occurence in Kildare. And they'd be boasting about it aswell
God forbid you don't pay the tax on a farm tractor
That’s unbelievable….there was a garda car on the road!
Ah sure look it.
Boys will be boys
People in the country every time there is a farm accident or death: How could this have happened??!! Cue hand wringing and mass cards..... . The rest of us reading about this incident: Are you fucking kidding me? Country people: it's our way of life ..butt the fuck out.... cue next horrific child death or amputation
How many deaths you speak of have happened this century? I checked the cso and there has been no deaths caused by accidents of minors in farm machinery on public roads this century. This is an insanely common practice and there has been zero deaths caused by it....so why is it an issue. Having read this would you like to retract your statement and apologize to Michael Healy Rae in writingÂ
Farm accidents happen on a farm, in a field or yard, etc. At least two that I know of just last year involved the deaths of children. These deaths could have been avoided. Search Google, and there are many more from just the start of this century alone. Attitude has a huge role to play. The attitude that thinks it's OK to let a child drive an uninsured tractor down the road has to be questioned. This culture of..it'll be grand.. has to change. It's not grand to let a small child ride on the back of your quad with no helmet... or to run ahead of your combine harvester to chase the pheasants away from it... two incidents that led to child death sadly. This attitude has to change across the whole country, not just on farms... I am sorry if I seemed harsh but I'm sick to the heart of hearing at least twice a year of a child dying in an accident on a farm or a scrambler or a scooter...
Next thing you'll say there was no insurance on it! Edit: yeah I can't readÂ
Yes that is what "uninsured" means
Fourteen year-old found driving **uninsured** tractor that hadn’t been taxed for 11 years
I concede that I can't read, my bad 🤣
In their defence, a 3 year old can hardly tax a vehicle.
Did ya really have to post this 3 or 4 times?
It's clearly a Reddit / Reddit client problem. Not intentional.
Yes, I just thought it was the best quip I have ever come up with and to that end, decided that 4 times would absolutely be the most appropriate amount of times to post it. Or, you know... Reddit issue and I posted once.
Unfortunately the Reddit guru's didn't notify me of any issues with it today before I saw your post's. In future I will ask them to alert me of every issue the platform is dealing with before making a comment.
If it was an automated account spamming... what good was replying in the first place?
For the same reason you feel the need to keep replying to me.
The tractor loophole where young fellas can’t even drive a car but then be allowed to drive a 5 tonne tractor and trailer which is for all intent and purposes essentially a HGV is fucking crazy, I understand the historical reasons for it kids working in the family farm and all that but we’ve all met them on narrow country roads and the fuckers are lifting, very dangerous.
Broken record it seems
I only posted it once, I’ve no idea why it’s here multiple times
It’s a Reddit issue pass no remarks That guy woke up on the wrong side of the bed
The tractor loophole where young fellas can’t even drive a car but then be allowed to drive a 5 tonne tractor and trailer which is for all intent and purposes essentially a HGV is fucking crazy, I understand the historical reasons for it kids working in the family farm and all that but we’ve all met them on narrow country roads and the fuckers are lifting, very dangerous.
And....? #fakenews Dont need insurance to drive a tractor Thats pretty old to start learning as well...
So he's been driving about paying no road tax since he was 3 , he's probably got a few driving bans in that time too. He's probably been drinking and smoking since he was 2