Drivers urged to be on alert for farm traffic

The dangers of texting and driving are well-advertised.

Those dangers are multiplied when slow-moving farm vehicles are on the roads each fall.

Iowa State Patrol officer Doug Cutts and many others involved with public safety encourage drivers to keep their eyes on the road and to proceed with even more caution than usual during the fall, when more farm vehicles tend to be on roads and highways.

“They move a lot slower, in a lot of cases,” Cutts said. “And there are a lot of blind corners, curves, hills, large buildings and other vehicles. It’s time to slow down and pay attention.”

While the population of Jasper County has been somewhat stagnant for decades, the number of licensed drivers continues to rise. In fact, between 2007 and 2014, the number of licensed drivers in the county has gone up about 20 percent — from nearly 23,000 to more than 27,000.

With so many drivers on the road, it sometimes makes it tough for farmers to safely move along regular roads. Uncontrolled “T” intersections — especially in places that have high corn or other tall crops — are among the biggest challenges, Cutts said.

Cutts is a senior trooper with the Iowa State Patrol in the safety education division. His territory is vast, but he lives in the Newton area, and he ends up spending a great deal of time with young people in the Newton Community School District. Last week he placed an alcohol awareness display in the Newton High School rotunda on the Friday before homecoming weekend.

Agriculture poses a different kind of challenge to younger drivers, Cutts said.

“One thing young people benefit from is routine,” Cutts said. “Working with crops is anything but routine, in terms of when vehicles are on the roads. If there’s rain in the forecast for the next day, and a field needs to be worked, you’ll see a combine out there, day or night.”

Cutts said some of the vehicles that require special care include combines, tractors, wagons, trailers and even larger trucks, such as 18-wheel big rigs, among others. Some of these vehicles are stopped or are moving very slowly, and might change directions at any time.

“A lot of vehicles will take up more than one lane, or are even larger than the entire road,” Cutts said.

The 2015-16 Iowa Drivers Manual suggests a driver should “make sure the driver of the slow-moving vehicle can see your vehicle before passing.”

Cutts reminds drivers that the only legal way to pass any vehicle that’s on a roadway — even farm vehicles — is to begin and complete the pass where it’s legal to do so. A driver must have a dashed line, or at least a dashed line on their side of a solid line, and must complete the pass before a single solid or a double solid yellow line begins.

The state trooper said it’s important to not have any kind of electronic device in hand while driving — especially in farming areas in the fall. The Iowa Department of Transportation reported that there were 771 crashes involving at least one driver who was using a device at the time of a wreck, and four of those accidents led to a total of six deaths. There were 330 injuries in those 771 wrecks, with 10 injuries classified as “major.”

Cutts said traveling slowly and being ready to slow down or stop requires having both hands on the wheel as much as possible. He said phones and other devices are discouraged, as are having food, drink containers or makeup in hand.

“People need to just drive when they’re at the wheel,” Cutts said. “If you’re driving around tractors and combines, and you have a drink in one hand and food in the other, who’s driving?”