(Terril)– If you’ve been travelling in the country lately, chances are you’ve had to share the road with a few farm implements.
Scott Falb of the Iowa Department of Transportation says in 2000, the latest for which crash statistics are available, farm vehicles were involved in six fatal crashes, 92 injury crashes and 108 property damage crashes. He says the most common time of day for collisions was between 4:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.–when commuter traffic is coming home from work and farm operators are returning from their fields.
Falb urges motorists to be alert and watch for slow-moving vehicles and to be patient. He says motorists should not assume the farmer will automatically move aside to let you by as there may not be enough room on the shoulder or it may not be able to support a farm vehicle.
Operators of farm equipment are reminded to use signal lights or hand signals in advance of turning; to drive slow-moving vehicles in the right-hand lane as close to the edge of the road as possible; and to pull over when it’s safe to let traffic go by.
