Sir, – Well I, for one, when driving a quad don’t wear a helmet and when I drive my tractor I don’t wear a helmet – yet both vehicles are classed as tractors.

As early as the 1970s it was illegal to sell a non-cabbed tractor without roll-over frame and most tractors had a ‘safety frame’.

Why is it then that there is a law that vehicles known as quads (but are really tractors) escaped this safety requirement?

Is a clown in a helmet safe?

Would a clown inside a safety frame without a helmet be safe?

In the places that I go while 'herding sheep – old peat bogs, heather covered rocks, bog holes etc – I find that standing on the machine is much safer than sitting as I have a better view of what is in front of me. I reckon that a safety frame would offer better protection than a helmet.

They say that experience teaches fools, wise persons live to tell tales?

Yes, people will get killed and maimed, that is the downside of any industry, regardless whether you are on a farm, construction site, fishing, or in an office – the ones that meet an untimely end are the risk takers!

On YouTube, there is a clip of a man starting a chainsaw with the blade between his legs,what advice would the HSE give in this situation.

I would advocate that is high time that all manufacturers comply with the law and fit safety frames to tractors and drop the ‘bike’ bit – a bike has two wheels.

Before education kicks in, common sense has to be there first!

Angus A Macdonald
Balivanich,
Benbecula.