Motorists Urged To Safely Share Roads With Farm Machinery

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Safety officials are urging motorists to safely share the road with farm equipment as the harvest gears up.

The Minnesota Department of Transportation says drivers need to watch out for slow-moving farm machinery transporting crops to markets, grain elevators and processing plants, especially on rural two-lane roads. Farm vehicles are big and heavy, make wide turns and have big blind spots.

State traffic engineer Sue Groth says the harvest season is in full swing, and farmers in every corner of the state are using the highways.

From 2012 to 2014, 414 traffic crashes involving at least one farm vehicle happened on Minnesota roads, resulting in 13 fatalities and 202 injuries. Of the 13 fatalities, eight victims were riding farm vehicles; of the 202 injury victims, 48 were on farm vehicle.