By Louis Roesch, Director, Ontario Federation of Agriculture

Ontarians across the province are eagerly anticipating the upcoming Victoria Day long weekend which has long unofficially marked the start of a year’s camping, cottaging and summer travel season.

With the weather slowly warming up, farmers are also getting busy working their fields and planting this year’s crops. That means you’ll see more large tractors and farm equipment on the roads as farmers travel from field to field and farm to farm while they work.

Both of these milestones mean more people, vehicles and equipment will be sharing Ontario’s busy roads – and all of us must share those roads responsibly to make sure everyone gets to where they are going and home again safely.

Many drivers get frustrated when they get stuck behind a slow-moving tractor, especially if they’re in a rush. But farmers can’t always pull over; on busy urban roads, there may not be enough space to move aside safely. The same is true on rural roads, where the shoulders are often steep and narrow – and at this time of year, they can still be soft as the ground is still drying out from the spring thaw.

Farm equipment is bigger than it used to be and moves much slower than regular road traffic –no more than about 40 km an hour.

It’s estimated that approximately 8.5 million vehicles drive about 136 billion kilometres in Ontario each year. Annually, there are about 200,000 accidents, 50,000 with injury and over 500 fatalities

Because of the size and comparably slow speed of farm equipment, collisions with slow moving vehicles are 5.5 times higher and result in 3.8 times more fatalities than collisions between two cars, per kilometre on the road.

Most are rear-ending collisions and passing errors, followed by head-on collisions, swerving, side-on impacts, and turning into oncoming traffic. Almost 80 per cent of collisions with slow moving vehicles happen during the day under good visibility and dry road conditions.

I farm in Chatham-Kent in southwestern Ontario and I’m also a director on the board of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture. We work on many issues that affect farmers and rural communities. Road safety is a big focus, as is advocating for better roads and transportation infrastructure and regulations that reflect the needs of our modern agriculture industry – one of the biggest pillars of the provincial economy.

Motorists, here’s what you can do to prevent road accidents this harvest season:

• Watch out for orange triangles on the back of farm equipment. These are slow moving vehicle signs that mean we legally can’t go faster than 40 km/hour.
• Pay attention to indicator lights and remember that a gap between a slow moving vehicle and an oncoming car or truck can close very quickly.
• Be patient and pass only when it’s safe. Farm equipment is much larger than it used to be, and many rural roads have narrow shoulders that often prevent farmers from pulling off to the side safely to let motorists pass.

There are best practices for farmers operating slow moving vehicles too.

Every vehicle towing an implement must display the orange triangle slow moving vehicle sign on the back that warns drivers that they are approaching slow-moving equipment. These signs are only for equipment; attaching one to a roadside mailbox or other fixed object visible from the road is illegal.

Make sure your load doesn’t block your view or the ability for other motorists on the road to see your signal intentions.

Check your equipment carefully every day before leaving the farm, ensuring hitches, brakes, and tires are well-maintained and road ready. Make sure your lights are working properly and that your slow-moving vehicle sign is visible and secure.

And just like regular motorists, don’t be on your mobile device while driving – distracted driving is distracted driving regardless of what you’re driving!

If we all stay alert and patient, we can keep our roads safe and make sure everyone gets home safely this planting season and summer.

 

Tyler Brooks
Director of Communications and Stakeholder Relations
Ontario Federation of Agriculture
519-994-2578 or tyler.brooks@ofa.on.ca.