Preston High School rolls out Bring Your Tractor to School Day

KINGWOOD, W.Va. (WBOY) — A different, much louder and bigger twist on show-and-tell was front and center at Preston High School on Friday.

High school students, alongside alumni and staff, safely drove 17 tractors along the highway escorted by police, making stops at elementary and middle schools all in the hopes to bring awareness on agricultural tractor safety.

This was the school’s inaugural “Bring Your Tractor to School Day.” Agriculture Instructor Terry Hauser said that people should drive slowly around tractors on the road and not get impatient.

“Beginning of planting season now, and we’ve got tractors—a lot of tractors on the highway. As our farms have gotten bigger, we’ve had to travel more on a rented acreage and so on. Tractors have gotten a lot bigger, equipment has gotten bigger so we really need to call attention to the motorists to you know, be cautious around what we’re doing and slow down. Wait for that opportunity to pass, motorists get very impatient,” Hauser told 12 News.

The Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs website said about 250 people are killed per year due to overturns, runovers, entanglement and collisions involving agricultural tractors. Several of the people who attended Bring Your Tractor to School Day have been personally affected by these kinds of accidents.

FFA Chapter President Isabelle Hauser, said that her Pap was hospitalized and later died after starting a tractor from the ground. “Whenever my Pap started it, it was in gear so it came over him and he was hospitalized and later passed,” she told 12 News.

Samantha Stone, who is both a parent and County Commissioner, told 12 News that her son was run over by one of their family’s large tractors last August. “He’s a walking miracle,” she said.

Stone and Hauser said these accidents were a wake-up call to promote safety. As part of the day, the 170-member FFA group also got to spend time with a law enforcement officer who taught them what equipment precautions are necessary from tractor operators, like correct reflective signs.

In addition to promoting tractor safety, the event also helped showcase the importance of agriculture in the county and state.

“I think it was good to see everybody involved in and interested in agriculture, ‘cause it’s the future,” 11th grader Cordell Bolyard told 12 News.

The FFA group said they’re looking forward to bringing this event back every year and with the chance of making it even bigger.

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