No Seat? No Rider

Tractor rollovers and runovers are consistently among the top causes of on-farm injury and death. The risk for severe injury from rollovers and runovers is especially high for extra riders who do not have a designated seat. So the message is very simple. If your farm equipment – tractors, combines, etc. – does not have an instructor’s seat in addition to the operator’s chair, then no one should be riding with you. Especially not kids.

People ride on tractors in many different and dangerous places. Some of these places require a gymnast level of balance to prevent falling off. Others expose riders to unintended dangers such as getting clothing caught in tires when riding on cab steps. And just because you are in a cab does not mean the extra rider is safe. During a rollover one of the first places hands go for stability is the door handle. And as an operator, you cannot react fast enough to prevent injury to extra riders during a rollover or falling event.

The potential injuries from a tractor rollover or runover are very serious. If a person is lucky, they will only be hurt by the fall. If they are unlucky, a victim’s clothing may get caught in tires, power take-off shafts or other moving parts and lead to pinching, twisting and wrapping type injuries. Individuals can also be runover by both the tractor and the implement being pulled by the tractor. These runovers, at best, lead to crushing injuries, but victims can suffer other injuries depending on the implement in tow.

There will be some who roll their eyes at this article and do not make it past the first sentence. But remember this. All it takes is one time. One time for your son, daughter, grandson, or granddaughter to lose their balance and fall. One time for your entire world to stop as the most important thing to you disappears underneath a tractor. And it won’t matter how many times you and your siblings did crazy stuff on the farm and survived. It won’t matter if your kids did it and they all survived.

And I get it. I have lived it. A special bond is built when riding along with parents and grandparents doing fieldwork. Kids absolutely love it and so do the grownups. It’s a tradition. But just because it is a tradition does not mean it is the right thing to do or that it should continue. And we as adults have to take the hardline on this for the safety of our kids and others. No seat? No rider.