:Jerry: wrote in


snip

First rule taught to all in the motor trade, ALWAYS depress the clutch
(or put the left foot on the brake if the vehicle is an automatic)
BEFORE operating the starter, a sloppy / mal-adjusted gear leaver can
give the 'appearance' of being in neutral (or park) but not actually
being so.

There are half a dozen UK deaths a year caused by drivers running themselves
over whilst working under the bonnet of automatics ticking over in Drive
rather than Park

I've seen cars get driven off workshop ramps when someone has
forgotten such a basic safety procedure, not a problem when the ramp
is down, something altogether different when it's 6ft up in the air...

I was once teaching a lad about the basics of tractor driving - we were
using a Fergie135 (in the days when they were new!) and we'd used it to pull
a 30' greenhouse frame upright. Bit of a "ship-in-bottle" assembly -
construct it flat on the ground and connect a cable to the apex and slowly
move the tractor forward as the whole thing rises into shape.

My contribution over, as regards the tractor driving, and with the
greenhouse frame now standing erect and held there by the cable attached to
the tractor, I thought I'd carry on with the tractor driving lesson.

I demonstrated the ignition cut-out, to show him that the tractor couldn't
be accidentally started in gear, by leaning over and turning the key.

As I said afterwards, the bloke who removed the safety cut-out was as much
to blame...

....then again, the chap who'd been sitting on the ridge bolting the thing
together didn't know who'd removed the cut-out whereas I was standing there
just waiting to hear his considered opinion of the bloke who'd turned the
key.

Quite right too.

I hope the lad I was training remembered the lesson about reliance on safety
features to the abandonment of common sense - in the best part of 40 years,
I haven't forgotten.

--
PeterMcC
If you feel that any of the above is incorrect,
inappropriate or offensive in any way,
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