Share The Roadway This Harvest Season

Harvest is well underway across the Northwest, and as Dan Neenan of the National Education Center for Agricultural Safety points out whether it’s county roads, state highways or are freeways, motorists are going to see a lot of slow-moving farm equipment out there. He said it’s vital everyone shares to the roadway.

“You're going to see these big pieces of equipment out onto the roadway later into the evening," Neenan said. "We're getting darker earlier in the evening, so the chances that ag equipment is going to meet with the motor in public is pretty good this time of year.”

Neenan added safety is everyone’s responsibility.

“Ag equipment will be making turns into farmsteads," said Neenan. "The motoring public can only pass farm equipment in passing zones. You can't pass it in no passing zones. But we see a lot of collisions that occur between the motoring public and the farming community when the tractors and the combines are turning left into farmsteads about the same time that the motoring public is trying to pass. So there needs to be that awareness out there and to share the road.”

And some not connected with the farming community may be frustrated by farm equipment on the roadway, but remember, those drivers have as much right to be out on the roadway as passenger vehicles.

Click Here to learn more about the National Education Center for Agricultural Safety.

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