Starting young

[Bluegum]

Boy, 9, enjoyed driving front-end loader, court told

Article from: http://www.woodworkforums.com/images/sources/h14_thecouriermail.gif (http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/)http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,26434303-3102,00.html
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By Alison Sandy (http://www.woodworkforums.com/couriermail/author/0,23829,5003078-3102,00.html)
December 03, 2009 02:21pm

<!-- Split page --><!-- Lead Content Panel -->A NINE-year-old boy at the centre of an Industrial Court case regards driving a 30-tonne front-end loader for the past three years as "fun".
The court has heard that Dane Karreman began operating heavy machinery as a six-year-old and his grandfather, Multimillionaire Dirk Karreman, is seeking to overturn a State Government ban preventing him from driving the equipment.
Yesterday, the court was told that Dane was operating heavy machinery (http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,26434303-3102,00.html) including a 30-tonne front-end loader, excavator and bobcat, at the family's quarry up to 10 hours a day.
Today, child psychologist, Dr Michael Beech, said if you ask Dane about the experience "he'd say he was doing it for fun."
"I don't see he's being exploited", Dr Beech said.

Dr Beech and other experts appeared today to testify on whether or not he should continue to work at the Mt Cotton quarry southeast of Brisbane amid concerns he could be injured or killed.

This has been in and out of the papers a bit of late. Just wondering what our forumites might think. Some of the best operators I know started out this way. ( Wish I had been one of them)

[diver doug]

Why don't they have an inspector come out to see and judge his abilities? I thought that if he is on private land, the authorities can't do anything. But I don't know if i'd agree with him working 8 hours a day. I hope he's getting paid appropriately and the money is being properly managed for him.

In the end, if he's having fun, then let him go for it !

my two cents worth anyway...

Diver Doug
WoodenPlayhouseInfo.com (http://woodenplayhouseinfo.com)

[artme]

I'll bet the boy is more capable than most at what he does.

In the Himalayas it is left to 5-7 year olds to weave the ropes for the suspension bridges in some places.

[Sebastiaan56]

When a violinist starts that young and succeeds we proclaim them a prodigy, its a pretty small minded world that doesnt recognise talent outside of limited areas of endeavour.

[corbs]

When I was 5 Dad used to put me in the tractor while he went and fell asleep in the ute listening to the cricket. I used to love it but got in trouble for chasing quail when I got a bit bored:wink:

[funkychicken]

When a violinist starts that young and succeeds we proclaim them a prodigy, its a pretty small minded world that doesnt recognise talent outside of limited areas of endeavour.

Ever seen someone run over by a violin? Or a violin crashed into a shed or vehicle? Front end loaders can do a bit more damage than instruments

[corbs]

Its a long jump from the video below to driving heavy machinery but the principles are the same. Teach kids properly and make sure they respect the tool then all mistakes are theirs... as per my signature block, its only a mistake if you don't learn from it.

<object width="560" height="340">


<embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/QuoH8nsrlqI&hl=en_GB&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></object>

[richie47]

Nicely put Corbs.
And the way OH&S is going one day we're gonna need special dispensation from on high to scratch our own [insert appropriate noun here]

richie

[tea lady]

I dunno. Hasn't he got other things he also should do? Its a bit like playing real live video games for 10 hours a day. We would worry then wouldn't we? :shrug:

[BobL]

When I was 9, on saturdays and school holidays I started riding shot gun on the fuel tank of one of the D9's that hauled karri and jarrah, from where dad had dropped the logs, back to the landing where the logs were loaded onto trucks. My job was to hang on for dear life cos Macca, the dozer and truck driver, was an alcoholic and had two speeds, flat out and stop. Macca would back the dozer up close to a log and was supposed to hook up a steel cable or chain around the log. Because Macca was also a fat, lazy bastard I used to do the hook up - I was only allowed to ride the D9 with Macca if I did the hook up. The trick was getting back up on the dozer before Macca realized the log was hooked up otherwise he was orff! He also taught me how to stand on a moving track and it would lift me up to the height where I could grab hold of the canopy frame and pull myself onto the fuel tank. I just had to watch out he didn't decide to go backwards.

Sometimes the bottom of the log would be buried in dirt so I had to lay out the chain or rope and macca would roll the end of the log across the rope. Back at the landing I used to wrap the steel cables around the logs and he would pull them up onto jinkers. I liked doing it, Macca paid me in fags which I gave to my dad at a the grand exchange rate of a penny per fag. At the end of the week I also got a free lemonade at the mill workers club - that was it.

In winter and spring I used to light a fire and boil the billy for morning tea and lunch. In summer and Autumn, when we couldn't light a fire we used to heat cans of baked beans and irish stew by tucking the cans in between the exhaust manifold and the D9 engine block. Often a can would explode and the contents spray all over the manifold and exhaust and burn away and pong for the rest of the day.

It makes my skin crawl today when I think about it but hanging around those guys but even at the age of 9 I learned so much. I had been going bush with dad since I was 6, Dad was a faller started with axes and crosscuts but by the time I was six the first chainsaws had come in. I carried the fuel and oil, he carried 2 chainsaws with 42" bars plus a bag of axes and wedges.

[richie47]

Actually it's not even a little bit "like playing video games 10 hrs a day"
and as long as the kid gets a good all-round education [ie readin', writin' an' 'rithmatic]
as well, he'll be fine. To grow up with a skill like that is gold in this day and age.
As said by someone else I hope he's getting appropriately paid and trained in how to use his money.

[tea lady]

Actually it's not even a little bit "like playing video games 10 hrs a day"
and as long as the kid gets a good all-round education [ie readin', writin' an' 'rithmatic]
as well, he'll be fine. To grow up with a skill like that is gold in this day and age.
As said by someone else I hope he's getting appropriately paid and trained in how to use his money.:) Yes I guess it is different. Real for a start. He's kinda living the dream. :cool:

[Bob38S]

Some 9 year old kids are more mature than some 19.....29....+......year olds

This kid appear to be one of those exceptions - his father and grandfather were obviously aware of this - unfortunately the powers that be can only see the one size fits all, got to cover my backside and protect those who don't want to take responsibility for themselves side and feel that we must comply.

[rrich]

When my son was 4 & 5 YO, he would drive the lawn tractor to cut the grass at my father in law's home. FIL mentioned several times that my son did a better job of cutting than my 19 YO brother in law.

After watching my son operate the tractor for the first half an hour it was obvious that he was safe to be left on his own. He would raise the blades, back up and maneuver to get close to the out buildings to cut the grass.

[dj_pnevans]

I don’t think it is a big problem as long as some one is with him. What you have to look at is if he rolls it and kill’s himself or some one else then there will be an out cry and the media will have a field day. Yes you can train people to do the right thing but accidents do happen and is he older enough to deal with the results?
David

[munruben]

I suppose we will be endorsing kids of 8 or 9 years old driving cars on the road next. I don't think a child of that age would be able to cope with a real emergency should it happen. and if anything happened to this young lad, I wonder if the parents would feel they had done the right thing then. Let them be kids, there is plenty of time later in life to take on that sort of responsibility. As for letting a child drive for something like 10 hours a day straight off, well sounds like child labour to me. We have laws in place for truck drivers about hours of driving but seems everyone thinks its okay for a little boy to drive for 10 hours at a stretch.