Those dog gone trailers……..
I really started thinking the past few days about how long I have written public relations/safety articles and it’s hard to believe but it has now been a decade. I have covered about everything that relates to driving that I can imagine but I don’t think anything I ever discussed generated so much controversy or at least spirited discussion as this issue. Especially among our local farmers and ranchers who pull water tanks with pickups. First of all, to tell a little personal history story I grew up on a very small farm/ranch in S.E. Oklahoma as I have mentioned before. We had cows, horses, goats etc. over the years but fortunately that part of the country, even in times of severe drought always has water in the creeks even if they are not running and farm ponds seldom go all the way dry.
So, hauling water for livestock was never a daily task as it is in this region. However our home was on a high, rocky hill and our well was not even good enough to make it through one bath so we had to improvise. My father converted our old cellar into a 3000 gallon holding tank with sand for a filtering system. It worked well but my semi-daily chore was to keep that tank full. This consisted of using our old 8N Ford tractor to pull a 250 gallon propane tank converted to haul water on a 3/4 ton truck axle. I managed to do this by backing the trailer into Black Fork Creek about one half mile away and letting it fill as much as it would through a gate valve on the back. I would then walk out onto the tank, close the gate valve and finish filling the tank through a funnel spout with a five gallon bucket. I’d then drive the apparatus home where through gravity flow the tank would empty through a garden hose into the sand filter and then the holding tank. A family of four uses a lot of water so you can imagine how many times I made that trip until a couple of years after high school. (Rural water came there since) This was a fairly tricky task during cold weather and I slipped on the icy tank more than once and had to drive that tractor home wet in freezing temperatures a few times. But, we always had running water. The moral to the story is that we connected that old tank-trailer to the tractor with a hitch that only had a an old single end wrench stuck through it. Only gravity and the weight of the trailer kept them that way. The trailer/tank with axle were very old and substantially built so it probably weighed close to a thousand pounds empty and with a full tank of water about three thousand. Likely more than the old 8N tractor which had old style drum brakes on only the rear wheels. Quite “squirrelly” to stop with a full tank I can assure you if running in fourth gear. (probably about 20 mph) No one ever told us in those days we should have had a safer hitch and that I should probably run in no more than third gear considering how hard it was to stop that thing. Of course, we never heard of anyone having a wreck and getting hurt in our extremely rural area so I suppose we never thought of that. Plus, we “were farmers”. Counting watering our garden and keeping the tank at home full I made thousands of trips to the creek I can assure you. On at least two or three occasions over all those years however I met someone in a car or pickup (the road was a rural county one with hills and sharp curves) on MY side of the road and had to take the ditch. Lucky for me the vehicle didn’t hit me on the tractor but at least twice the old wrench bounced from the hitch and there was a runaway tank trailer. Luckily it never hit anyone. I’d simply open the valve, let the tank drain through it and the air hole in the front. I’d then re-hitch and re-fill with never much thought. Lights were not needed or required nor would they be today behind a tractor but the hitch was clearly a bad idea and unsafe. You MUST have a good quality hitch today…..In regards to brakes on the local tank trailers if someone wants to kill a couple of crows, cook them and help me eat them I deserve it. I must admit I was wrong. For those not old enough or who didn’t watch a lot of westerns “eating crow” is an “old” saying for admitting you were wrong. I simply was. Between myself, Troopers Tracy Brown and Boyd Perry and several of our “downstate” partners extensive research of Oklahoma Statutes seems to allow an exception to brakes and lighting for water tank trailers as under the definition of “implements of husbandry”. These trailers are still clearly required to have at least one red light to the rear visible for at least 500 feet, or as an alternative, have reflectors visible in all directions. That IS the law. I am big enough to eat a little crow although I must admit as a man and especially a state trooper it is hard to swallow. Not everyone who reads my articles or at least hears about them loves me but thankfully I am appointed and not elected. One thing I can say is that even with a belly full of crow I can sleep at night after doing my job because in my heart I know I always try to do the right thing and enforce the law as I was hired to do.I will depart this subject for now by saying this: The law has been softened in some areas for farmers simply because farming is hard and farmers deserve a few exemptions. We as troopers do not believe the law was softened in this area intentionally because it creates a very dangerous situation but sadly it usually takes a tragedy to bring about corrections or the closing of loopholes. That may be the case here. On the highways of Cimarron County we have people from all over the USA, Canada and Mexico traveling through here EVERY DAY. Many of these people do not even speak English and almost all of them are in a big hurry. A great number of them associate objects like a water tank as a slow moving vehicle and if that slow moving vehicle is in their way they WILL pass it. If you are that person driving the pickup pulling a water tank with no signals, brake, or tail lights and you make a left or right turn you could easily get an 80 mph vehicle in your driver or passenger door. Even if this is only a compact car you and any passengers of your vehicle will be lucky to survive. This might not happen for some time but could easily happen tomorrow. A good quality trailer light kit can be purchased at any parts store or Wal-Mart for around thirty dollars. How much is life or limbs worth??? Yes, it is a pain to keep trailer lights working but recovering from injuries received in a crash is much more of a pain. If you are lucky. About all I can do is require anyone pulling these trailers to equip them as required and in this case take an extra step in the interest of public safety. This is simply the right thing to do and is my attempt to prevent a tragedy instead of simply respond to one. If you are a responsible adult and see a fellow farmer or an irresponsible person pulling a loaded or un-loaded tank through Boise City or even one of the smaller towns please do the right thing and talk to them about it. They can’t stop that thing much better than a loaded semi. Many people have contacted me through e-mail and in person about both sides of this issue. Some are actually “pretty hot” about the issue EXPECTING the lights to be installed. If you own or are responsible for a water tank or any other trailer spend that thirty or so bucks and put fully functional lights on it. It is simply the right thing to do and not any harder than to comply with the one red light and reflector requirement. Let’s be pro-active and do what we can to prevent a tragedy rather than just be sad after one happens…….
“Truly a Troopers’ Perspective”
Trooper Duane Johnson #280
Oklahoma Highway Patrol
