As spring slips through our fingers while the days get longer and summer sits on the horizon, farmers and their employees are working many arduous hours to get seed in the ground.
Sometimes, that means hauling their massive machines on roads and highways to mingle with regular traffic, usually for a relatively short stretch as they go from one field to another.
For the rest of us, that means keeping a keen eye open whenever we hit the open road. Of course it goes without saying that we should always be aware of what's coming down the road at any given time, but reminding motorists to exercise caution when farmers are seeding can't hurt. Most people who drive frequently are likely used to regular heavy truck traffic, but even logging trucks, for example, tend to roll along at much greater speeds than farm equipment.
While a large tractor can generally be spotted easily from a fair distance — unless there's something like a corner, hill, trees or combination of all the above obstructing the view — drivers might nevertheless be surprised by how quickly that space runs out when catching up to a vehicle that's barely going a fraction of the posted speed limit.
Safely operating such gargantuan mechanical constructs alone must be stressful enough as it is. The average motorist struggles to properly parallel park a small car — we all know people, including perhaps even ourselves, who failed their driver's test because of it — therefore one can only imagine how he or she would handle a motorized behemoth.
So the last thing agricultural producers and their workers need to worry about is impatient motorists who seem to be more concerned about shaving a few minutes off of their trip rather than ensuring everyone's safety, including their own, apparently.
Farmers and their employees already endure a dangerous enough line of work as it is — there's no reason to increase the potential risk of a serious collision by driving recklessly.
Drivers who are worried about getting somewhere late should probably plan ahead and leave a bit earlier at this time of year in case they find themselves having to accommodate farm traffic.
If you do find yourself approaching large farm equipment on the roads, reduce your speed and give the operator all the space that person needs to manoeuvre safely. Chances are the operator will be pulling off of the highway and into a field before you know it.
But trying to save a few seconds or minutes off of a trip by unsafely passing farm equipment simply is not worth the risk.
After all, a few minutes today are but tiny drops in the bucket compared with a lifetime of recovering from a poor decision, or even worse — a permanent place to rest six feet under.
