13-year-old Finlay Gallagher speaks about being the UK's youngest qualified digger driver

KentOnline / KMTV

The teenager from Maidstone tells us all about the special documentary he stars in around his life as a digger driver

Transcript

00:00Normally teenagers are advised against handling heavy machinery, but Finlay Gallagher from

00:06Maidstone isn't like most teens. The 13-year-old is officially the UK's youngest qualified

00:11digger driver and is the subject of a special documentary appearing right here on KMTV.

00:17The story of Digger Finn will be going out straight after Kent tonight, but now we'll

00:21be chatting to Finlay and his dad Stephen shortly, but first here's a quick peek at

00:26the film.

00:28Finn's potentially going to be the youngest ever that co-operator.

00:32He's been obsessed with diggers, tractors, any machinery, but at 13 we never thought we'd

00:38have the opportunity to do this.

00:41So you're here for two weeks for your 180 course.

00:43Where should I put the mud?

00:45Put the mud this side. There's a lot to take in.

00:47You don't be pushed for time.

00:49Come on, shake it.

00:50Have I got to practice with?

00:52Yeah, I thought you did.

00:58Excellent isn't it? Thank you so much for joining us. What's it like watching yourself on the TV?

01:02Uh, it's a bit embarrassing sometimes because I felt like I could have done so much better,

01:09but as well it's quite cool seeing myself on the internet as well.

01:15And what must your friends think they must be super impressed?

01:18Uh, they kind of take the mick out of me sometimes, but I think most of the time they like it.

01:24Yeah.

01:25And so at what point did you realise that you liked diggers? I mean, was it from a young age?

01:32Oh, we had a machine over ours digging a pool and my dad luckily let me drive it.

01:43So that kind of just got me into it. And then I started mowing the lawn and then as I got older,

01:51I could kind of go up the farm and sit in machines and that grew my interest in the machines a lot more.

01:58And then, so you must have had a lot of trust in him to let him drive that machine and

02:02you maybe already knew that he'd be quite good at it. What, what, I mean,

02:05has he always been really good at doing this sort of thing?

02:07Yeah, so he took to it pretty naturally to be honest. So I've always, yeah, like I say,

02:11was safety first, but had that trust in Finn. He's always shown a really careful hand and he's

02:17always taken it very seriously. So it was, that sort of helped me and gave me the confidence to

02:22to believe in him a little bit more and give him a bit more trust and obviously seen how he developed

02:27and grew as, as he went along as well.

02:30And obviously you knew he would be a natural and you knew he was quite good at it,

02:33but did you ever expect that he'd be certified at 13 years old?

02:36No, not at all. To be honest, it's probably been a rapid year, hasn't it? So it's probably about this

02:40time last year when it first really came up and he's, he's really gone from strength to strength and

02:44just having that experience and opportunity and he's really had to make the most of it.

02:49Did you have any challenges when you were, when you were completing the certification?

02:54Uh, yeah, I had a few tests, the health and safety, which I had to do a lot of revising for that

03:00on an app. And with doing the theory test at the site to, with the theory test, you have to complete

03:09it to get onto the practical. And then the practical is the bit where you're in the machine.

03:15So yeah.

03:16And do you have to wait until you're 16, until you can actually work a job with it?

03:21Or can you start now?

03:22No, you have to, it has to be, uh, wait until he gets his, uh, his full license.

03:27And then obviously they've got age restrictions on sites as well. So to be, be careful on that, that side.

03:32So it's just, it's really just practicing principle at the moment and, and just keep trying to pick up

03:38little bits along the way and then really keeping him in school till he's 18, to be honest. That's the plan.

03:44Excellent. So by the time you're right, Phil, you'll be well experienced and probably

03:47surprising everybody else there. Do you hope that maybe the documentary inspires other kids your age?

03:52I hope so, because quite a few kids at the plant work show I went to a week ago,

03:58they were coming up to me and saying, what's it like being the youngest? And they want to get into

04:05machines like me, not just Batco's, but any machine they can get their hands on really.

04:10Fabulous. Well, thank you so much for joining us. And, uh, I'm sure people watching at home

04:14will be very impressed. So good luck in your journey.

04:18Fabulous.

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended