With more farm vehicles on the road at this time of year, drivers should be mindful of allowing them space and time, advises the Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA).
The group notes that every year, many serious and preventable accidents occur on rural roads.
Federal statistics show that farm vehicles are 3.8 to 4.8 times more likely to be involved in a fatal collision compared with other types of motor vehicles. With the sun out, more people are on the roads, including farmers who are busier as warm weather arrives.
“Keep in mind that farm vehicles are very busy at this time of year, so machinery is moving up and down the road for planting, spreading manure and doing the things as farmers do in the spring,” said Mark Reusser, OFA director for Waterloo Region.
“That will slow down somewhat over the summer and then become more common again during harvest time. So it’s not necessarily a problem that is all year round; every month it is more common at certain points in the year. I would ask that people be aware of that.”
While it’s tempting to carve a few minutes off your commute and fly past a slow-moving vehicle, safety should come first, the OFA stresses. Passenger vehicles improperly passing farm vehicles are a leading cause of serious collisions, with eight out of 10 collisions involving farm equipment occurring during daylight hours.
“[Caution signs] are there for a specific purpose, and they are for vehicles that are travelling 40 kilometres an hour or less,” said Reusser.
“I think it is a little bit different in Waterloo Region than many other places, because of the existence of Old Order Mennonites and Amish, who use buggies and horses, and they all have slow-moving vehicle (SVM) signs on them, so they all move slower than the rest of the traffic on the roads. It is so important that we take note, and when we see those SMV signs on buggies, slow down and be very careful,” said Reusser.
Since the buggies are pulled by a live animal, the last thing drivers want to do is spook it and risk an accident. If you do end up passing a horse-drawn buggy, take specific safety precautions to make the maneuver safer for everyone involved.
“Take care to go slowly when you go around them. Don’t accelerate quickly in front of them. Certainly, don’t use your horn ever when you’re right beside them, because that can spook [the horse] too, and then you jeopardize the safety of not only yourself but the people who are in the buggy,” said Reusser.
“You will often encounter buggies going on the shoulder of the road, and some of our roads actually have space for that, but I would caution people to still slow down when you pass it, even if there’s room in your lane. Again, you don’t want to spook the horse, or potentially cause a safety issue.”
Even in rural areas, Reusser noted, residents are seeing more and more traffic.
“With a proliferation of people moving out of the cities into smaller towns and villages and out into the country, there are certainly more cars and trucks on the road than there have been in the past. That makes highways busier and more congested, and perhaps more frustrating for people when they have to slow down,” said Reusser.
“So, I would suggest assuming at some point you’re going to have to slow down on your commute and build that into your timetable for getting to work wherever you’re going. It’s just going to happen, so plan for it rather than causing an accident.”
Farmers also feel the pressure from frustrated drivers and sometimes move closer to the shoulder of the road, trying to be more helpful to drivers. However, Reusser stressed that farmers should be careful doing this.
“Be very careful about becoming too accommodating and moving too far over to the ditch. People driving a farm vehicle have every right to utilize their lane, and you jeopardize the safety of not only yourself but also people near you if you go over the edge into a ditch and cause a rollover. Rollovers do occur every year in Ontario, especially with farm tractors, and they are preventable. Don’t move over too far. If you’re a farmer, use the road and be safe,” said Reusser.
Injuries and deaths from collisions with slow-moving farm vehicles usually result from rollovers while entering, exiting, or crossing roadways, veering off soft shoulders, and collisions with passenger vehicles.
Overall, the message this spring is for drivers to bring a little more patience to the road.
“We all like to get out after a long winter. We like to see what the countryside looks like. We like to get to work on time, but at the same time, there’s traffic and vehicles on the road that don’t move as fast as we do, and they have just as much right to be there as we do,” said Reusser.
“But a life is more important than getting to work on time.”
