Stay patient, sheriff says

Good harvest conditions are bringing increased traffic to highways and rural roads in southwest Iowa, as farmers haul their crop and move equipment from field to field. 

Montgomery County Sheriff Joe Sampson said drivers who encounter farm equipment need to slow down and be cautious. 

“Accidents are most frequently caused when drivers get impatient. They sit behind a combine or tractor driving 25 miles an hour, and impatience sets in. Then they see what they think is a safe place to pass that isn’t, and they wind up getting in an accident,” Sampson advised. 

He added that with the current conditions in the county, you can almost always expect to see farm equipment on the roads. 

“Doesn’t matter if it’s a paved road, or a gravel road, all the farmers are working hard to get their crops out in the good weather, and putting in long hours, so all the roads in the county are likely to be busy,” Sampson advised. 

According to Sampson, the roads where drivers need to be the most cautious are on gravel roads. 

“If a driver is traveling up the middle of a gravel road, there could be a combine on the other side. With the size of their farm equipment nowadays, a driver going 50 miles per hour meeting a combine on the other side of the hill is going to risk a serious accident, so slowing down and keeping to the side of the gravel road is the safest thing drivers can do.”

Equipment operators are aware of passenger vehicles on the road, and Sampson said those operators will be as courteous as possible. 

“They all try to get over as far as they can. The new equipment has turn signals on it now, and they need to be watching those lights to see if the equipment is making turns,” Sampson said. 

While the equipment operators travel as far over as possible in most cases, Sampson said that is a courtesy, not a law. 

“The equipment operators don’t have to travel along the side of the road. They have the same rights on the roadway as a car does.”

Lastly, Sampson said so far this harvest season, there have be no incidents of accidents as a result of a passenger vehicle meeting farm equipment. 

“I hope we don’t. The farmers are working their hearts out to get the crops in. They’re trying to be as cautious as they can, and hopefully the rest of the motoring public will be as cautious as they are,” commented Sampson.