>”A family in a car driving in heavy fog on the motorway at 120Km/h could come across this tractor and have very little time to react. This is presenting a clear and present danger to other road users and is a serious tragedy waiting to happen,”
You’d like to say this would never happen, but then you remember you’re in ireland where its a shit fest on our roads.
Putting them on narrow country roads with no visibility around corners is the alternative.
No option here seems ideal.
But grateful we’re investing in Greenways so pedestrians and cyclists are safer either way.
Let them drive on hard shoulder? But then if there’s an obstruction on the hard shoulder…
They should just ban tractors from all roads, let them move them on low loaders like they would with a track machine. There’s no reason articulated trucks couldn’t be used to transport anything to and from farms the same way they are for construction machinery and materials. At least the truck drivers have their hours restricted and have proper licences.
Just let them use hard shoulder. Most of the time hard shoulder is empty anyway. If there is an obstruction, indicate move over and move back. Simple. Same for emergency vehicles.
From my own personal experience, and obviously this is just from my area, farmers have been very good at having their hazards on nearly constantly, bit of a drizzle? Boom, both back lights and a top light flashing yellow
Great idea, I think they should go further and remove all cars but me, that would make my travel so much easier for everyone who is me. /s in case
There are 2 lanes on a motorway, how can they not figure it out
I’d agree with this. I do a lot of driving at night and they are a hazard. Lights are often either dim or blinding and even in good visibility it can be difficult to accurately assess their speed until you are on top of them. I’m not a speeder either, even in the dead of night.
I was recently driving from Mahon to the city along the southern ring road. Even then, I nearly had an accident. There was a tractor in the left lane with no hard shoulder. A few cars were stuck behind it, trying to get into the overtaking lane.
There were plenty of hazard lightsto try catch unaware drivers attentions.
cars holding lanes and were working together to avoid getting stuck behind it. Terrifying seeing cars hard braking behind you from going from 100/120 km/h to 20km/h
‘*The IRHA has said many of their members’ HGVs are getting stuck behind tractors and trailers, leading to congestion and dangerous manoeuvering on the motorway network*’.
If truck drivers are manoeuvering dangerously, they should be prosecuted. Tractors use lane 1, lane 2 on the motorway is for overtaking. If truck drivers cant use lane 2 safely, then stay in lane 1 rather than using lane 2 at a slow speed and causing congestion for all the traffic building up behind the truch in lane 2.
The irha should really deal with their donkey driver/members on motorways overtaking each other at 94kph for 5 minutes because the other member is doing 92kph. See it all the fucking time.
The IRHA has been lobbying for decades to eliminate what they say is a loophole in the licencing system in Ireland whereby works vehicles (tractors & trailers) can be used for non-agricultural purposes. Here is an article from 2003 – [https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/truckers-deny-call-for-ban-on-tractors/25920476.html](https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/truckers-deny-call-for-ban-on-tractors/25920476.html)
Anyone with a category B driving licence in Ireland is automatically entitled to the ‘W’ category, which if you look closely at the back of your licence is in italics to mark it out as a national category. Other European countries don’t have this, and any haulage operation would need to be carried out by someone with a CE licence with CPC qualification. The IRHA is a lobby group so it’s not surprising that it should argue in favour of its members who have these extra qualifications.
The IRHA’s lobbying (which is almost always on the grounds of health and safety) almost led the RSA to start enforcing the CE requirement until it resiled from that position last year. The construction sector complained that more restrictions would hamper the provision of greater housing supply, so the RSA found itself in a vulnerable position – [https://www.farmersjournal.ie/machinery/news/rsa-reverses-tractor-licensing-restrictions-809059](https://www.farmersjournal.ie/machinery/news/rsa-reverses-tractor-licensing-restrictions-809059)
Calling for a ban on tractors using motorways is just the next chess move, and is no doubt part of a wider campaign to bring more widespread restrictions. One suspects they timed this press release to follow a particularly grim weekend in terms of road deaths when their story would have the most valency with the public.
Brilliant. After years of seeing near misses, I was amazed it was allowed this long. We’re the only country in Europe who allow it. Having a huge speed differential between traffic is dangerous.
They should also be banned from towing low loaders with diggers on them. Try getting past one of these bastards.
While not agreeing with some of the poorly made points on this, tractors need taking off motorways and not just that – hard low limits on size of tractor for under 18’s and professional training and certification for those over 18 a lot like the CE level.
Call me cynical but my guess is the truckers calling for tractors to be banned from motorways is nothing to do with road safety concerns and really about farming contractors who haul construction machinery like JCBs and Caterpillars from building site to building site. The truckers are looking at the farming contractors eating their lunch so a motorway ban is a way to put the kibosh on the farmers and funnel the business back to the truckers.
I was very confused for a second about why the IHRA was commenting on this.
i mean their most correct here in eseesnce since tractiors cant keep up with speeds on the motorways and can cause issues re: accidents and traffic flow
im surprised they werent banned already
I guess they would be happy to do the work of tractors in return like moving agricultural products?
I didn’t know we were the only country in the EU doing this
Tractors shouldn’t be used on regular roads nevermind motorways, most farm insurance policies are to briefly use a road when traveling between fields. Trucks have continuously evolved to be safer for road use , to be safer for cyclists and pedestrians agricultural tractors have not.
Just the road hauliers trying to get more business for their members by preventing the use of fast tractors for haulage.
22 comments
>”A family in a car driving in heavy fog on the motorway at 120Km/h could come across this tractor and have very little time to react. This is presenting a clear and present danger to other road users and is a serious tragedy waiting to happen,”
You’d like to say this would never happen, but then you remember you’re in ireland where its a shit fest on our roads.
Putting them on narrow country roads with no visibility around corners is the alternative.
No option here seems ideal.
But grateful we’re investing in Greenways so pedestrians and cyclists are safer either way.
Let them drive on hard shoulder? But then if there’s an obstruction on the hard shoulder…
They should just ban tractors from all roads, let them move them on low loaders like they would with a track machine. There’s no reason articulated trucks couldn’t be used to transport anything to and from farms the same way they are for construction machinery and materials. At least the truck drivers have their hours restricted and have proper licences.
Just let them use hard shoulder. Most of the time hard shoulder is empty anyway. If there is an obstruction, indicate move over and move back. Simple. Same for emergency vehicles.
From my own personal experience, and obviously this is just from my area, farmers have been very good at having their hazards on nearly constantly, bit of a drizzle? Boom, both back lights and a top light flashing yellow
Great idea, I think they should go further and remove all cars but me, that would make my travel so much easier for everyone who is me. /s in case
There are 2 lanes on a motorway, how can they not figure it out
I’d agree with this. I do a lot of driving at night and they are a hazard. Lights are often either dim or blinding and even in good visibility it can be difficult to accurately assess their speed until you are on top of them. I’m not a speeder either, even in the dead of night.
I was recently driving from Mahon to the city along the southern ring road. Even then, I nearly had an accident. There was a tractor in the left lane with no hard shoulder. A few cars were stuck behind it, trying to get into the overtaking lane.
There were plenty of hazard lightsto try catch unaware drivers attentions.
cars holding lanes and were working together to avoid getting stuck behind it. Terrifying seeing cars hard braking behind you from going from 100/120 km/h to 20km/h
‘*The IRHA has said many of their members’ HGVs are getting stuck behind tractors and trailers, leading to congestion and dangerous manoeuvering on the motorway network*’.
If truck drivers are manoeuvering dangerously, they should be prosecuted. Tractors use lane 1, lane 2 on the motorway is for overtaking. If truck drivers cant use lane 2 safely, then stay in lane 1 rather than using lane 2 at a slow speed and causing congestion for all the traffic building up behind the truch in lane 2.
The irha should really deal with their donkey driver/members on motorways overtaking each other at 94kph for 5 minutes because the other member is doing 92kph. See it all the fucking time.
The IRHA has been lobbying for decades to eliminate what they say is a loophole in the licencing system in Ireland whereby works vehicles (tractors & trailers) can be used for non-agricultural purposes. Here is an article from 2003 – [https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/truckers-deny-call-for-ban-on-tractors/25920476.html](https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/truckers-deny-call-for-ban-on-tractors/25920476.html)
Anyone with a category B driving licence in Ireland is automatically entitled to the ‘W’ category, which if you look closely at the back of your licence is in italics to mark it out as a national category. Other European countries don’t have this, and any haulage operation would need to be carried out by someone with a CE licence with CPC qualification. The IRHA is a lobby group so it’s not surprising that it should argue in favour of its members who have these extra qualifications.
The IRHA’s lobbying (which is almost always on the grounds of health and safety) almost led the RSA to start enforcing the CE requirement until it resiled from that position last year. The construction sector complained that more restrictions would hamper the provision of greater housing supply, so the RSA found itself in a vulnerable position – [https://www.farmersjournal.ie/machinery/news/rsa-reverses-tractor-licensing-restrictions-809059](https://www.farmersjournal.ie/machinery/news/rsa-reverses-tractor-licensing-restrictions-809059)
Calling for a ban on tractors using motorways is just the next chess move, and is no doubt part of a wider campaign to bring more widespread restrictions. One suspects they timed this press release to follow a particularly grim weekend in terms of road deaths when their story would have the most valency with the public.
Brilliant. After years of seeing near misses, I was amazed it was allowed this long. We’re the only country in Europe who allow it. Having a huge speed differential between traffic is dangerous.
They should also be banned from towing low loaders with diggers on them. Try getting past one of these bastards.
While not agreeing with some of the poorly made points on this, tractors need taking off motorways and not just that – hard low limits on size of tractor for under 18’s and professional training and certification for those over 18 a lot like the CE level.
Call me cynical but my guess is the truckers calling for tractors to be banned from motorways is nothing to do with road safety concerns and really about farming contractors who haul construction machinery like JCBs and Caterpillars from building site to building site. The truckers are looking at the farming contractors eating their lunch so a motorway ban is a way to put the kibosh on the farmers and funnel the business back to the truckers.
I was very confused for a second about why the IHRA was commenting on this.
i mean their most correct here in eseesnce since tractiors cant keep up with speeds on the motorways and can cause issues re: accidents and traffic flow
im surprised they werent banned already
I guess they would be happy to do the work of tractors in return like moving agricultural products?
I didn’t know we were the only country in the EU doing this
Tractors shouldn’t be used on regular roads nevermind motorways, most farm insurance policies are to briefly use a road when traveling between fields. Trucks have continuously evolved to be safer for road use , to be safer for cyclists and pedestrians agricultural tractors have not.
Just the road hauliers trying to get more business for their members by preventing the use of fast tractors for haulage.
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