I live in rural North Shropshire and am alarmed by the increasing size of farm tractors in relation to the size of the roads. They now span across the whole road width where I live and alarmingly tow trailers with far heavier harvest loads. What also worries me is the lack of safety equipment these machines have; spinning warning lights and adequte indication and brake lights on trailers and also training the drivers many of whom seem to be just out of school. I met one today carting maize he was going like a bat of hell braked sharply and the tractor and trailer slid wheels locked out of control towards me. How safe are these machines and their drivers on our roads?

I understand that most are driven by contractors, and I suppose the drivers are young because the hourly rate is very low - same story as everywhere else. Probably the main models used are designed for roads in the USA.

What annoys me is for my sins I ride a Motorcycle,lost count of the times the police have stopped me to check on the size of my number plate yet tractors & trailers rarely have any! I sent a letter to the Shropshire Star asking the police since when have farm vehicles been exempt from the law,still awaiting reply..................................

And it doesn't help that roadsides are no longer loooked after. Pavements -when there are any!- are allowed to become covered with soil so that in parts only a fewe inches is allowed for people to walk on.

Your roads are far superior than ours! I prefer the roundabouts (the one we have in town the locals call a rotary) to traffic lights. Next time we visit though, we will use public transport more. I never want to experience driving in London again. We saw a lot of questionable farm machinery on the road in Shropshire when we were there.

Public transport varies in frequency, value and quality quite a bit across the country. In London it's amazing. In Shropshire... not so... :rolleyes: Though if you're planning on travelling from town to town, the trains are not so bad. But the buses in Shropshire are more-or-less dire, and expensive.

One of the other hazards with tractors is the positioning of the headlights.

Have you ever approached one of these tractors at night time on a small country lane not being able to judge the size of the vehicle because the headlights are set very close together?

Can be very difficult to deal with, particularly for the novice driver perhaps travelling to fast for the situation.

Of course the correct way to deal with it would be to slow down and be ready to stop if you need to.

If dazzled stop for a while and allow your eyes to readjust.

Perhaps there needs to be a legal minimum for the space between lights? Some side lights to help people gauge size, etc., of other road users?