Seatbelts and Safety in the Countryside

Welcome to another edition of Farm Talk!

Growing up on his Grandparents’ avocado and orange ranch in Ventura County was “a magical time” for Paul.  During the summer, he and his brother would travel with his grandfather from his house to work at the ranch.

They would sit in the back of his El Camino pickup truck with two big happy dogs, Jack and Jill. It was an idyllic time – as Paul describes it – larger than life.

It was the 70’s – the laws were different – they didn’t use seat belts.

Fast forward to two months ago – Paul met a neighbor while selling a ranch property.

Then recently, he found out that this woman had an accident on a country road and died because she wasn’t wearing a seat belt. She had been driving an ATV Quad with roll-bars on her own property. Her grown daughter and two friends were in the vehicle.

When the ATV’s tires got stuck, the vehicle rolled, and the neighbor fell out and died. Her passengers were wearing seat belts. They survived.

Paul still fondly remembers the rides to his grandfather’s ranch – and realizes, (with a greater awareness) how lucky he and his family are. He cautions us to be aware and to wear our seat belts even when driving on open country roads.

Listen to Paul’s Farm Talk for more details about the art and practicalities of living and thriving in a rural area!

Also visit: somirealestate.com

Transcription

Farm Talk: Seatbelts and Safety in the Countryside

Paul Ward here with the Home and Ranch Selling Team and welcome to Farm Talk.  Today I want to go back in time and tell you a story before jumping to the present day.  It’s a cautionary tale. When I was young, back in the ‘70s and early ‘80s, my brother J.J. and I grew up working on our grandparent’s avocado and orange ranch near Santa Paula, CA. We would commute with my grandfather in his 1982 El Camino pickup truck. I vividly remember his El Camino; it was a very distinct looking vehicle. It looks like a car in the front and a sleek looking low pickup truck in the back.

J.J. and I would often drive sitting in the bed of the El Camino with our backs to the cab. We would sit in the bed with my grandfather’s dogs. He had two dogs, they were Lab and German Shepherd mixes named Jack and Jill –  they were very special to my grandfather and just a lot of fun. When you’re a kid, everything seems larger than life, so these were pretty big dogs for this time in our lives. We would often ride back there without any seatbelts; that was just the way it was back then. There were no laws for seatbelts and it was more fun to sit in the back with the dogs than it was to sit up front. I remember the dogs would often put their front paws on the side of the pickup to catch some wind in their faces as we would go around the various bends on the country roads getting to my grandfather’s ranch, which was about a 25 minute drive from his house here in Ventura County, CA. 

Fast forward to about two months ago, I was showing a ranch house that had just come on the market that I had for sale and a neighbor came over; she was very excited to show this property to some friends. She was hoping that her friends, who were prequalified, would buy the property to be closer to her.  I think she was probably in some ways a nosy neighbor – often times if there’s an open house, you get a nosy neighbor. But she did want to show this property to her friends.

I just learned a short while ago that she was on her ranch driving an ATV, an all-terrain vehicle with roll bars. She was on one of her ranch roads, a steeper road that had a hill on one side and some erosion running down the middle of the road on the other side of her vehicle. Either her front tires got stuck in the erosion ditches or they went over the edge of the road and her vehicle rolled over. Her grown daughter was in the passenger seats and I believe two friends were in the back seats, The driver fell out and was crushed and died on the scene. She was not wearing her seatbelt. The other three passengers were wearing their seatbelts and so they were able to extricate themselves from the vehicle and run to get help.  Hearing this just kind of shocks you to the core. Not that I knew this lady personally, I had only met her once a few weeks earlier because she was the neighbor to a property that I was selling.. I will admit being out on the country roads and driving ATVs and pickup trucks; if you’re on the country roads, I don’t always wear my seatbelt and it’s just kind of a cautionary tale. Maybe you always wear your seatbelts, maybe you’re good in that regard, but it’s just kind of a warning.

Whether you’re out on country roads or certainly on the highway, you just want to play it safe. And you know, back when I was a kid, sitting in the back of the pickup truck, it was a magical time and fortunately nothing happened. It was something that people really didn’t think about all the time.  When my brother and I in the back of that pickup truck, honestly, were just lucky at the time.

You never know what’s going to happen of course – be safe.  I will certainly think of that lady that passed and my prayers do go out to her daughter and her family. You just want to be safe when you’re out driving, even if there’s no other traffic around because accidents do happen. If you have any comments, feel free to text or call (805) 479-5004, and you can always email us Paul@homanranchsellingteam.com. That’s our cautionary tale for today and I don’t want to get you down but do want to make sure that everybody is safe.