OPINION: Young lads taking tractors for 'a spin' will end in tears - where are gardaí?

There has been a lot of talk recently about roads in rural Ireland with changing speed limits being the big gripe. The usual venting at the condition of roads at this time of the year is also rife around the country while the usual whack of roads funding was announced last week - a pot of money to fill potholes that open up again next year.

Roads in general are a perennial issue in rural Ireland but the targeting of lower speed limits on Ireland’s country roads has caused huge discussion. Some 80km/h roads have moved to 60km/h, with further changes from 100km/h to 80km/h and 50km/h to 30km/h coming over the next few months.

The Government says it will save lives while one farmer I heard on radio last week said it could cause more accidents. He said if he’s travelling at 60km/h in his tractor on a road that used to be 80km/h, some drivers from “five and six back” in the queue behind are more likely to take the chance and “overtake the lot of us.”

It’s a fair point but there is a wider issue plaguing some rural areas in Ireland; young teenagers driving huge farm vehicles with very little care. You have to be 16 years of age to get a learner permit to drive farm vehicles and maybe 16-year-olds look younger as I get older, but I’ve seen kids driving tractors on local roads. There seems to be very little enforcement for one, be that from the gardaí or from the parents of these young drivers - and we’re all potential victims of a practice that appears to be some sort of hush-hush tradition.

I was driving to the supermarket recently at around 7pm on a Saturday evening when I encountered the same tractor on the way in and the way out with two very young-looking teenager lads in it; one driving and the other sitting beside him. They were wearing jeans and shirts and did not look like they were coming from or heading to a job on a farm. They were out for a spin literally around the town. They were doing laps.

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If I was a farm parent and had a 15 or 16-year-old son or daughter, there is no circumstance in which I would allow them out to tip around town in a tractor, effectively for sport. These vehicles are among the largest and heaviest on the road and can pose a huge risk to other road users if not driven responsibly, and there are a lot of road users in rural Ireland, from cyclists to walkers.

A few years ago, there was outrage over a TikTok trend in which young drivers would video their exploits on the road behind the wheel of these tractors. It was discussed on Claire Byrne’s RTE radio show at the time where it was said that many local residents are “now afraid to walk the roads and drive on country roads” because of “young fellas on massive tractors using their phones as they are driving.” The same is going on today and it’s a recipe for disaster. Each lap those young lads needlessly took of the town was further potential for tragedy.

Living in rural Ireland, I’ve encountered tractor drivers, young and old it must be said, using their phones while driving. As mentioned on that show in 2020, people in rural Ireland are forced to cycle or take their daily walks out on the main roads and a distracted child driving a tractor isn’t exactly the fellow road user you want to meet. These issues are only going to become more pronounced as the brighter evenings come in and farm vehicles become even more common on the roads.

The ordinary car driver feels like they are the one being targeted all the time with changes like the speed limits, penalty points, speed van fines. They put Garda trucks on the motorways to catch people on their phones or committing other offences, and these are all great initiatives, but when are we going to tackle children driving three-tonne tractors with little regard for other road users. I’d gladly welcome a Garda tractor or truck on the roads around my house in Offaly.