Canada’s official Farm Safety Week was the second week in March just as it is every year. It is imperative to give a strong reminder to our farmers every year because farming is still one of Canada’s most dangerous jobs.
For decades, automobiles were engineered to be more . . .
reliable, look more appealing (remember the 1950s and 1960s when a large design change happened every year so each year the car received a whole new look) and a power and speed race encouraged by car racing got our rides going 150 miles per hour with engines of more than 500 cubic inch displacement. There was so much chrome on them both inside and out that they were loaded down with things like horn rings that could puncture your lungs or heart in a serious wreck.
They all had large heavy steel frames that could not only stand a fast crash but were also stronger than the smaller cars and could be a lethal weapon in a crash. Many a victim of a crash still has the scars from a chrome plated radio button that deformed the face or may even have killed the person. I still remember when a collapsible steering column was introduced. Before that, the steering wheel would come up to kill the driver in severe front-end collisions.
A friend of mine just retired from a lifetime of work at NRC in Ottawa where crash test dummies were used in simulated crashes to point out the most dangerous design flaws in cars. Air bag placement and other improvements like collapsible front ends followed. Now the entire car is designed to collapse during a serious crash and many more newly designed cars are write-offs so the occupants can survive.
Todays car interiors are softer, smoother, contain more plastic than chrome, have less knobs that stick out and dozens of improvements to help reduce injuries and save lives. Most new cars also have a black box that is downloaded after a fatal crash.
The large truck and industrial equipment industry is not only much larger and profitable than the farm equipment sector but much more monitored and regulated by safety organizations to encourage manufacturers to include safe design in every new model.
Seat design in new trucks and industrial equipment has now given drivers a more comfortable place to spend the day than most cars even offer as an option. In every industrial work site there is a safety expert to ensure that not only every machine is safe to operate but all working conditions are safe too.
The farm population is less than three per cent of the population and farm equipment sales are minute when compared to industrial equipment. On an industrial site or even to drive a car, workers and drivers must be of legal age. Many farm kids are operating equipment and handling animals from an early age. I steered my first tractor at the age of three. Many pieces of farm equipment are kept in service until a more efficient technology makes it obsolete. That huge tractor that you admire in the field might have been manufactured 40 years ago. My own favourite tractor was built in 1970.
Just like old cars, many old tractors built before 1960 didn’t have power steering or power brakes. When power steering was introduced, it was required that even if the power part stopped working, the car could still be steered with more manual power being used. During the 1960s real power steering was introduced on many tractors. These tractors used the tractor’s hydraulic system to power the steering. There was no mechanical link between the steering wheel and the wheels that were being steered. If the tractor stalled or ran out of fuel the engine no longer drove the hydraulic pump that supplied the oil to run the power steering. Within seconds of the engine stopping, the operator had no control of steering the tractor.
If the operator was on a steep hill, travelling on the road or near an embankment disaster could happen within seconds. Real power brakes work the same way. If the engine that drives the hydraulic pump that powers the brakes stops the operator looses all braking power and cannot stop. So why doesn’t he use the emergency brake?
About the same time that real power steering and real power brakes came on the market, manufacturers had known about unreliable emergency brakes on tractors for years and decided to design a transmission interlock that when applied would lock the gears solid and the tractor would not move. This sounded like a real solution. But, if the engine stopped while the tractor was rolling, it was impossible to engage the transmission interlock. Then the driver not only had no steering but also no brakes and no emergency brake and it was impossible to engage the transmission interlock. Otherwise, these were very good, trouble free, easy to repair tractors that were manufactured for 30 years and are still in use on many farms. Yes, people have been killed on these tractors.
Many of the huge swathers, combines, and self propelled forage harvesters are hydrostatic. Hydrostatic means that there is no mechanical transmission. The hydrostatic transmission is driven by the engine and once the engine stalls or runs out of fuel the operator loses control of slowing down, stopping or in some cases steering the machine. Some of these machines have no emergency brake and rely on a mechanical interlock that must be applied while the machine is stopped. It cannot be engaged while the machine is moving. Some of these machines were still being sold in 2015. Most are still in service today.
Canada has had a Canadian Farm Safety Council for generations and representatives from machine manufacturers, farm groups and agricultural safety associations have been meeting several times per year to come up with new ideas for safer equipment. Cabs that do not crush in a roll over, roll bars on tractors without a cab, better safety shields, better lighting, controls marked with international symbols that can be understood no matter what language you speak, more ergonomic controls that are easier to find and use, machines that stop if the operator leaves the seat and dozens of other safe improvements.
No matter how many safety improvements that are incorporated into cars, trucks, industrial equipment, boats, snowmobiles, etc., the most important safety device on any vehicle is the nut behind the wheel.
Chris Judd is a farmer in Clarendon on land that has been in his family for generations.
gladcrest@gmail.com
