Can a backhoe be used to place eggs in a bowl? That’s one of the challenges at the Weber County Fair, wherein the second year of the backhoe rodeo contestants try their hand at a lot of things you wouldn’t ordinarily expect a backhoe operator to tackle.

“In front of supporters numbering in the low hundreds at the fair’s 2nd annual Backhoe Rodeo, 28 competitors nimbly manipulated various tractors to gently ease three eggs into a small bowl, three bowling pins into narrow canisters and one each of a basketball, soccer and tennis ball into a garbage can. The machines may not be as fickle as a discontented bull — but mastering them takes years, said Dean Maw, manager of Maw Equipment and the sponsor co-hosting the event with Weber County.” — Ben Lockhart, Standard-Examiner Staff

“It takes a lot of getting used to a lot of seat time,” said Nathan Skeen, from North Ogden, who has been riding the machinery for 15 years. “Everybody can kind of run one everybody can get on and kind of play with it, but it takes a know-how to know where to move the dirt or kind of what to do with it to get the job done.”

According to the article, Justin Anderson, from rural Weber County west of Ogden, took home the first prize of $300 and an embroidered jacket. Second place gets $200, and third place gets $100. Not everybody can maneuver this piece of heavy equipment to get such detailed jobs done, but it sure is impressive to watch them do it.

Backhoes are one of the most versatile pieces of heavy equipment, and those who have been trained to operate them continue to develop skills worthy of a rodeo just by being on the job, in the seat, doing what they are paid to do. If you are interested in operating a backhoe as a skilled professional, ATS Heavy Equipment Operator Training School is a good place to start.

It’s rather sad to read online newspapers sometimes, especially when you work in the field of heavy equipment training. One of the core areas of heavy equipment training is safety, and it’s easy to see why given some of these stories. To see these headlines, you would think that backhoe operations were extremely dangerous, yet in reality, operating a backhoe should be a very safe occupation. Some of the headlines from the past month include:

• Man Killed After His Backhoe Tips Over
• Orangeville Man Killed By Backhoe
• 6-Year-Old Girl Injured While Playing With Backhoe
• Gas Line Explosion In Lake Worth After Backhoe Incident
• Backhoe Gets Stuck In Mass. Ave. Tunnel

With the exception of the last news article, taking a little more care may have prevented these accidents. When a child is injured, the first question raised is related to how secure the operator had left his equipment while unattended. Severing a gas line is a team problem – someone should have had maps of the services to they could avoid any underground problems. The last point, while not a problem caused by the backhoe operator, is still an example of what can go wrong.

Undertaking heavy equipment training can help you to avoid many of these incidents, simply through the safety training that is now incorporated in that training. Safety should always be on the mind of a heavy equipment operator. Working safely in the work place demands attention to everything both in the cab and on the ground around you. Backhoes are generally very safe vehicles to operate, however, if you don’t have that safety training, you won’t know how to stay safe.