What would you have done??.

Last night as I was finnishing milking and putting one of the units back in the milkhouse (about 8:30pm), and the dog went nuts.So I steped out the east door to have a quick look around. I then saw a tractor heading east on our gravel road. It appeared to be a 300 farmall with loader that I didn't recognize. I then saw he was pulling a kicker rack full of people. they had bales piled in it to sit on and it appeared to be some kind of fall hay/joy ride. As they continued east I saw that they had no lights to the rear and that the bales and people were hiding the clear (illeagle at night) tractor back light. I went back in the barn and yanked off the last two units and ran out to the road to see if I could see wich way they went at the intersection 3/4th of a mile east of me. But was unable to see anything. Now, I support the right of people to go for the darwin award, but there were kids on this wagon. Should I have chased then down and loaned they my magnetic mount flashers, or was I right to do nothing??

There was a family reunion that ended with a whole bunch of dead people from a similar situation. They banned all hay rides on public roads in our province after that.

Guess I'd have tried to run 'em down, but by the time you found your flashers and got going, they might have been hard to find.

There's a guy apparently bicycling to work on our road at 6:45 AM- has a little flashing red light on his back, but wearing dark clothing and very hard to see. There are so many red reflectors in peoples driveways that the red light doesn't stick out very well. He sure could use some reflective stuff on his maroon coat and black back-pack. Believe I'll stop and mention it next time.

But he must have got a bit of a scare already, because today, for the first time, he was riding on the left side, not the right (there are no shoulders).

they'da prolly just told you to mind your own business anyway.or took your stuff and you wouldn't see it again......

maybe they'll get wiped out before they can reproduce.......

Your reactions were probably right, but your hands were tied, and you probably couldn"t have done anything, by the time you would have caught up with them, if you could have found them.

Poorly illuminated hay rides are a nightmare waiting to happen. Years ago my wife was on duty as an emergency room nurse at the local hospital.
A college fraternity and sorority at the college in the next county held a hayride. Two horse drawn wagon loads of young people. As I remember the story, there was a single lantern hanging off the back of the last wagon, and that got knocked off somewhere in the fracas. You can probably write the ending. A drunk in a Suburban took them from behind. Emergency rooms and ambulance services were maxed out with injuries - some very serious. They were hauling kids to hospitals sixty miles away - especially for the most serious injuries. Thinking that a couple off the horses had to be put down too.

We never do a hayride without remembering that.
We have a grain-barge (box) wagon. (Less chance of kids falling off.) Clearance lights on all four corners. Flashing tail lights on the rear. White strobes on the front corners. Tractor headlights and flashing warning ligts, as well as a large amber strobe or rotating amber beacon mounted on a post high above the tractor. Did I mention reflectors along the sides and rear of the wagon? If any motorist can"t that thing coming or going, they"re blind! And I still hesitate to send my equipment out on a hayride.

We farmers haul a lot of goods on the public roads. Most of it in the daylight, when it can at least be seen. Sometimes at night, but most try to have at least an escort vehicle behind... or at least some lights. A hayride is a whole different thing, you"re hauling a far more valuable cargo. Are you willing to bet your farm and livelihood that nothing will go wrong?

It was a dark nite.....maybe already too late.

i would be tempted to help them out also. you cant see dark people at night unless they smile. lol.

Nothing, a gravel road here would be a private road anyway just stay back. I never understood a hayride anyway, somebody is going to get hurt, that's been my experience at least.

Call a cop, that is what they are for....To help the stupid people from killing themselves

Let Evolution take its course.

here it is not a private road, but a township road

Off the edge of town in the Twin Cities a neighber of mine and his wife were in the habit of walking for exercise in the early mornings when still dark before work. A bicycle hit them head on and she was killed. No lights on anyone.

When one considers that emergence vehicles with flashing lights are hit often,it would be difficult to equip a hay ride trailer with enough lights to make it safe. If you did undertake lighting it up enough to be safe,what kid wants to ride if it's too bright to play patty fingers?

i know the feeling of" i need to do it NOW but there are machines on". by the time you get the milkers off, the situation is changed or gone.
i'd have done the same thing as you, get the machines off, try to see if i could offer them warning lights, and hope they returned the lights if they used them.

I see this a lot here in the fall, several groups used to use my tractors and wagons> LIABILITY!!!!!!! I stopped the use of my equipment. It you had stopped the group, hung your lights on it, then you have assumed the liability. I work commercial construction as inspector, our LAWYERS beat it in out heads to stay out of safety issues. If I see a man on an unsafe ladder and tell him it is dangerous and ask him to get off the unsafe ladder, then tomorrow I walk by and he is doing something dangerous and I don't mention it to him and he falls. Guess what is next. His lawyer sues me, because I did not mention the unsafe practice so he said he thought he was OK and me and my insurance co pay because when I first made an issue of safety I assumed the responsibilty. Your set of lights are on the wagon, someone gets hurt and LAWYERS for everyone on that wagon will be after your farm because you did not do ENOUGH to assure their safety once you started to be a good neighbor

That's exactly what I think; you get involved/use your lights and something bad happens, SOMEBODY is gonna sue you.

It looks to me like you did the right thing. You had to pull the milkers off, and then you checked to see if intervention was possible. You can't get off with the WV2CYL attitude. You have to think of yourself, because if intervention was practical and you didn't, and the worst happened, you would be living with it for the rest of your life. You have to think of yourself and do the right thing and to he** with the lawyers.

In our annual FFA hayride we'd always get someone to follow/chase in a car or truck with flashers on.

Uh...OK.... How does he prove you noticed him doing something stupid? Can't your defense be that you're just as stupid as he is and you didn't know that it's unsafe to be tied to an excavator bucket and swung around? You're 100% right about people's eagerness to sue for whatever, but take a look at the flip side. Someone walking down the road or on the wagon could have noticed him run out to the street and look toward the intersection, and, because that person was there the day before delivering Girl Scout cookies, she knows there is a magnetic light set on top of the I.H. model 111 freezer chest on the back porch, their lawyer has a case for negligence because the homeowner's failure to take action resulted in multiple deaths. Then you will be sued by the driver (next of kin, actually) whose Chevy Volt burst in a hydrogen explosion when it struck the back of the wagon. Then, the EPA finds out the driver was hauling Smart Bulbs, and the mercury is scattered all over the countryside ... The point is you're going to get sued in either case, so you may as well err on the side of safety. All you can do is try.

No, cops are NOT for preventing preventable accidents; they are for raising revenue for the state by issuing tickets AFTER violations occur.

Maybe it USED TO BE different, years ago. But today, it's all about the revenue enhancement.

Concentrate on your own business, you are not your brothers keeper.
If you are going to chase the idiots, then sell the farm for it will be a full time job....