Celebrate Ag Event Focuses on Driver Safety

With farmers returning to their fields for spring planting, drivers need to be alert for large farm equipment on rural roads.

According to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, there were 80 crashes involving farm equipment in 2021, resulting in two fatalities and six serious injuries.

PennDOT said some of the most frequent contributing factors in the fatal crashes were motorists driving too fast for conditions, impaired driving, speeding and driving on the wrong side of the road.

Farm safety and rural road safety will be important topics as Penn State Extension partners with the Mifflin County Farm Bureau to hold its first “Celebrate Ag!” event from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, April 15 at the Big Valley Antiques Center parking lot, 47 Auto Auction Circle, Reedsville.

“The Farm Bureau wants to get the word out about rural road safety,” said Cher Harpster, educator for the Mifflin County Office of Penn State Extension. “How to drive around farm equipment and horses. They are going to let people climb into the driver’s seat of a large tractor to see how hard it is to view the other cars on the road behind them.”

The family-friendly event will have a few food trucks as well as a demonstration by the Reedsville Fire Co. using equipment to rescue people trapped in a silo.

“We have had some accidents on our rural roads,” Harpster added. “The general public may not be aware of hand signals that farmers use. Younger drivers need to be aware of how to be cautious. Agriculture is huge here and soon farm equipment will be out on the roads.”

Safety is one of the main priorities for all the agencies. Motorists should use caution when driving on rural roads, especially in the spring and summer when farm vehicles are most common on these roads.

The Farm Bureau cautions motorists:

Make certain it is safe to pass farm equipment before proceeding.

Most equipment does not have turn signals and must make wide turns because of its length.

Keep a proper distance from the farm equipment as smaller vehicles are not always visible.

Compared to typical vehicle accidents, tractor accidents can be more dangerous, especially at low speeds. Part of the increased danger of tractor accidents is due to the size of the tractors and other farm equipment.



Source: lewistownsentinel.com