The road to safety: Be aware of farm equipment as harvest season approaches

In areas where population growth blurs the lines between urban and rural, sharing the road safely becomes everyone’s responsibility. Illinois farmers who live near Chicago, St. Louis and other metro areas know this all too well, but they implore their suburban neighbors to understand it, too.

Former McHenry County Farm Bureau President Dan Ziller operates a dairy, livestock and grain farm near Huntley, a town that has grown from 2,500 people in 1990 to more than 27,000 in 2020.

“It’s hard to get people to be patient until we can get out of their way or until they can get around us in a safe manner,” Ziller says. “When a huge piece of machinery is coming down the road, people don’t want to give it any room to get by, but if an ambulance is right behind it, they’ll get off the road.”

Renee Deterding farms 350 miles south of Ziller, only 35 miles southeast of St. Louis, and deals with similar frustrations.

“Far too many drivers cannot wait to pass or remain behind the farmer until they turn off,” says Deterding, who partners with two brothers and their families to operate D&R Huber Farms. “People have passed me on the right side; people have passed me and caused oncoming traffic to slam on their brakes and dodge to the ditch.”

Both farmers encourage impatient drivers to consider the size of the equipment and the importance of slowing down when approaching.

“People don’t understand this could kill them if they challenge it in a way they shouldn’t,” Ziller says.

Educating drivers

Ziller works with local high schools’ chapters and driver’s education programs to get the attention of new drivers.

“We take machinery to the school and put vehicles behind it,” Ziller says. “We let the kids get in the machinery and ask, ‘Can you see that car sitting back there?’ And they say, ‘No, we don’t!’ We don’t know you’re back there, so when you come darting around us and we’re not prepared for that, and somebody’s coming from the other way, that’s a problem.”

Ziller has helped develop videos for driver’s education classrooms, but adding to the existing curriculum has proven difficult. He says FFA chapters are helping and hopes the message resonates even more when students hear it from their peers.

Deterding would also like schools to teach more about safely sharing the road with farm equipment, as farmers have little choice in traversing the now suburban roadways.

“I wish motorists would understand the typical farmer doesn’t care to be on the road as much as the motorists don’t like us to be on the road,” she says.

Ziller echoes this sentiment and emphasizes farmers use main roads only when absolutely necessary.

“We don’t want to be there, but because of the development, we no longer have country roads to move machinery on because everyone else is on them, too,” he says. “You don’t just pack up a farm like a house and move. It’s a very serious undertaking, especially with cattle. We’re here for the long haul, and we just need to all work together.”

Deterding has another concern: who are now learning to drive the farm equipment.

“I want my family to be as safe on the road as anyone else’s,” she says. “My job is to prepare them for all the things that could happen, just like a parent would when their child goes off in a car. Always check your surroundings and proceed with caution.”

She just asks other drivers to do the same.

• This story was distributed through a cooperative project between Illinois Farm Bureau and the Illinois Press Association. For more food and farming news, visit ILFBpartners.com.