Safety On Rural Roads During Harvest Time
As the year progresses on from Summer to Fall there are new things to look forward to enjoying. Picking apples, fall festivals, and driving around admiring the autumn colors are just some of things that are great about this season. In Farming communities Fall is the start of what farmers have worked so hard throughout the year to get to so they can get paid for their efforts, Harvest Time. Farmers will be using the same roads as regular traffic much more during this time of year. The difference is their mode of transportation will be a little different. Instead of a car or SUV they will be driving grain trucks, combines, and tractors pulling grain augers or grain carts, all of which are very big and slower than your vehicle. Safety on rural roads during harvest time is something we all need to keep in the front of our minds.
I have been behind both types of steering wheels. I have been the one driving the tractor with cars stacked up behind me and I have been just trying to get somewhere and stuck behind a grain cart with no way to pass. In a farming community this comes with the territory. I have seen a lot of near miss accidents during this time of year. Some were the result of driving aggressively to try to get around a slow moving piece of machinery. Other times it has been a bad judgement call by someone driving farming equipment.
I understand we all have places we got to be and we all make bad judgement calls when we are behind the wheel from time to time. I am just asking that during this time of year give yourself a little extra time to get to where you are going to account for delays from Harvest Time activities. We all want to get to where we are going and we want to get there safely.
Rural communities usually were started because of farmers. Farms were established in rural areas. Then businesses like grain elevators, supply stores, lumber yards, banks, and grocery stores were built to supply farmers. Then the town population grows bringing in new businesses and opportunities, then in the prosperity a strange thing happens. All of the sudden the farmers, with their slow moving and sometimes not so shiny modes of transportation, are no longer seen as pillars of the community but seen instead as a group of people that are holding the town back from “progress”.
Not only am I asking you to practice safety on rural roads during harvest time while you share the road with local farmers. I am also asking that while you are behind the combine or grain cart that you can not pass safely, you remember that if it was not for the farmer there might not be a community for you to be a part of. Let’s all be more patient this season while we are behind the wheel and remember we are all part of the same community.
