Farmers and farm advocates urge the public to be aware of slow-moving vehicles as planting season begins in New York.
Jon Patterson, owner of Patterson Farms in Auburn, said he has seen at least two accidents related to farm equipment and another vehicle in recent years.
“We have a slow-moving vehicle sign on the back of all farm implements that are traveling less than 25 miles per hour. The farm bureau also encourages farmers to make sure that they’ve got signs on their tractors and their lights are working properly,” Patterson said in a press conference.
In a study conducted by the New York Center for Agricultural Medicine and Health, crashes involving farm vehicles were five times more likely to be fatal than non-agricultural crashes.
“Passing is one of the most dangerous times when it comes to engaging slow-moving equipment, farm vehicles or horse-drawn vehicles. I think it’s imperative that everyone understand that it’s not legal to pass these vehicles in a no passing zone,” said Cayuga County Sheriff Brian Schenck.
Passing in a no-passing zone is often when accidents occur with farm vehicles that are turning into a field or driveway.
Joseph Tyler, an employee of El-Vi Dairy in Newark, was severely injured in 2019 when he was turning onto another road and a dump truck ran into the back of his tractor. Tyler was ejected from the cab.
“I had a large laceration on my head, I fractured my radial bone, fractured my tibial bone, four vertebrae and had an enormous amount of bruising,” he said.
He was out of work for eight weeks and did physical therapy for sixm onths. Tyler said the experience was traumatic for his co-workers as well.
“It was emotionally trying for them to see their co-worker in that condition, and it has heightened all of our awareness of safety on the roads,” Tyler said.
While farms worry about the safety of their workers, they also worry about the safety of the public driving on these roads.
“We’re in large equipment and you’re driving a car that only weighs a couple of thousand pounds so as much as we talk about our safety, we want you to go home and see your families too and you’re more than likely going to sustain the bigger injuries,” Tyler said.
The challenge with some of the equipment farmers operate is that it can be hard to see behind it as they are likely pulling something behind them. Tyler was driving a tractor and hay merger that made it difficult to see behind him, he said.
Farmers are trying to get out of the way as quickly as they can, but they have a job to do, Tyler said.
“We try to do everything we can to make our machines visible. We wear high visibility clothing on our farm, for farm safety as well as public safety but at the end of the day, we want to go home and see our families,” he said.