Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Tuesday was the first day of fall and as we enter this autumn season it’s time to once again issue a reminder of safety on our roads.

Not long from now, area farmers will be back in fields as they start their harvesting and that means increased farm traffic on county and state roads as they move from field to field and begin hauling grain to elevators.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, in 2017 416 farmers or farm employees lost their lives in accidents. Transportation incidents, including tractor rollovers, was the leading cause of these deaths.

Vehicles used by farmers during harvest will often take up large chunks of road, making it challenging sometimes to pass them, especially considering how low under the speed limit they go. This is nothing new if you live in farm country like southeast Minnesota, so we ask drivers, as well as farmers, to be especially careful on roads.

Use patience when encountering these vehicles and maybe allow a little extra time when travelling to plan for possible delays.

Farmers have a job to do for all of our benefit and rushing to get somewhere raises the risk of injury or death from crashes.

At the end of the day, we all want to go home.