Many uphold the belief that the best way to teach a child is through play; that a fun and stimulating environment opens up the mind. A recent project undertaken by Institute Technology (IT) Tralee in conjunction with the Irish Farmers Journal takes this concept and applies it to the area of farm safety, which is particularly to the fore at present with Farm Safety Week taking place from 15-19 July

Engineering students at IT Tralee were delivered a brief that asked them to design and make a toy tractor, electronically powered, that teaches the safe use of farm machinery to children. From all of the groups that threw their hat in the ring, one team was chosen to actually go ahead and manufacture their tractor. The brains behind this venture are Eddie Lane, Donal Hand, Jack Cotter, Chris Joughin and Mong Pengs, who changed classes during building but nonetheless was influential in the project.

Logistically, the tractor is made of lightweight stainless steel, it can pull a load of up to 150kg and the frame can hold four tonnes. It is aimed at children aged eight to 13.

For Eddie, the team’s project manager, it is the practicality of the toy tractor that makes it such a good method of teaching farm safety.

“It’s purely a teaching tool,” says Eddie. “To actually get the child at eight years of age, when their brain is really taking in information, that’s when the child should be made aware of the dangers on the farm.”

Over a year ago the Farmers Journal approached IT Tralee staff with the proposal to make an electrically powered toy tractor. Safety and the ability to use it to teach safe use of a tractor was an integral component of the initial specifications and the design. The tractor unity began its life journey on the IFJ stand at the machinery Show in Punchestown.

Safety features

The team included a vast array of safety features in the tractor. Donal from Longford, who is taking a quick break from baling when Irish Country Living rings him, explains some of them.

The tractor won’t move unless the child is in the seat with the seatbelt fastened, there are sensors so it won’t crash against walls and there is a roll bar.

It also has tilt control. Once the tractor goes above a 27-degree gradient it omits a loud beeping noise continuously. As well as all this, it is geofenced, meaning that from a preprogramed point, when it goes outside a set number of meters a text is sent to the parent’s mobile phone.

This option was decided upon as opposed to cutting out the tractor when it went outside the set area, because if a dangerous situation arose, the child wouldn’t be able to move out of the way, says Donal.

“If the child drove out of the 40m range, was in the middle of the silage slab and it cut out, the father could be filling a grab of silage or something like that, he mightn’t see the child and could reverse back and the child wouldn’t have the option to move then.

“It could cut out on the child in a dangerous path that he could have the sense to move out of, which would lead to more safety concerns. At least if the father or mother has the phone on them and sees the text, they know there’s something wrong.”

Real-life situations

The fact that the team managed to cover so many bases so comprehensively in relation to safety can be attributed to how they related their plans back to real-life experiences. From Cork, Eddie is a mature student. A welder by trade, he decided to return to college following a life-altering accident in 2012.

Over a year ago the Farmers Journal approached IT Tralee staff with the proposal to make an electrically powered toy tractor. Safety and the ability to use it to teach safe use of a tractor was an integral component of the initial specifications and the design. The tractor unity began its life journey on the IFJ stand at the machinery Show in Punchestown.

“I suffered from blackouts for a lot of years from scuba diving, I got decompression sickness. I had a company above in Dublin and I got a blackout there. I fell down two glass steps of a stairs and ran straight into a concrete wall. I was in a coma for eight weeks. I got a second chance at life.”

“The extent of the brain injury I had, I just couldn’t let it beat me. It was my doctor who more or less forced me back to college. They said I was good enough to go back to college, to follow my dream.”

Donal is from a farm, so naturally he has an in-depth understanding of how unique a workplace a farmyard is.

“A farm is a different working environment than anywhere else, because there is often a family. Say in a meat production factory there won’t be children. But in a family farm, naturally there are going to be family around it. That’s why there are so many children involved in accidents around farms,” he explains.

“In reality, children on farms are driving tractors. It’s inevitably going to happen no matter what laws are in place, so it’s to train them on farm vehicle safety before they get to drive the real thing. The only way to learn how to drive in tractors on the farm, is in a tractor. The safest place they can be on the farm is on a machine.”

Tractor 2.0

Next year the group are planning to design a second version of the toy tractor that can be used by children with disabilities.

“My background again, I had a disability, I still have a disability, I suffer from epileptic seizures,” says Eddie. “From my own point of view, I think there’s nothing out there that actually gives a young child, say with missing limbs, the opportunity to even drive down into the field with his father.

“In the next tractor there’s going to be duel control, a hand throttle and a manual throttle as well. Any child will be able to drive it and a child, even if he or she has no limbs, they can steer it and drive it with their mouth.”

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