Orange City, Iowa — As fall is right around the corner and silage chopping season is beginning, the Sioux County Sheriff’s Office is advising motorists to use extra caution.
Sioux County officials say you need to use caution at intersections and slow down when meeting machinery.
Iowa State University Extension and Outreach provides some tips for defensive driving on rural roads during silage chopping season, and in a month or so when the harvest of soybeans and corn gets underway.
They say that you should:
Brake as if you were approaching a stop sign as soon as you see a slow-moving vehicle (SMV) emblem. Look for hand or turn signals from the farm vehicle operator, indicating a left turn.
When passing, make sure you can see the farm vehicle in your rearview mirror before you get back in your lane.
Iowa State agricultural and biosystems engineer Charles Schwab says that while farm tractors and other farm equipment make up only a small percent of total motor vehicles nationally, the percentage of fatal motor vehicle collisions involving farm equipment is almost five times higher than other vehicle collisions. He says that in crashes involving farm vehicles, the farm vehicle operator was killed nearly twice as often as an occupant of the other motor vehicle.
Schwab continues, “The most likely types of collisions are left-turn and rear-end collisions. The left-turn collision happens when the farm vehicle is about to make a wide left turn and the vehicle behind begins to pass. The second most common incident is the rear-end collision, where another vehicle approaches farm equipment and is unable to slow down to avoid a collision. This happens because of the large difference in travel speeds of these two types of vehicles.”
He says that motor vehicle operators need to be patient, show understanding, and not drive distracted – rushing and not paying attention to the road causes opportunities for collisions. It is important to understand the issue about coming upon a slow-moving vehicle when traveling at a high rate of speed.
