High school students from LeRoy learned how to stay safe when they see farm equipment on the road this fall.
The McLean County Farm Bureau hosted a rural route safety day at LeRoy High School on Wednesday. Several McLean County farmers and a Country Financial agent presented in front of some of the heavy machinery they may see on roads during the harvest season. Presenters helped students understand the challenges of meeting, passing and following a sprayer, combine harvester and a grain hopper trailer.
“You need to be most mindful of when you're following slowly moving equipment. Odds are you're going to need to get around them at some point. You've got to be really careful,” said Doug Davis, Country Financial advisor for LeRoy.
Students were also able to climb into the driver’s seat of the combine and semi truck to see for themselves what a farmer can see and how many blind spots the machinery creates while driving.
“We try and show them physically once they get in the machine, how far back they need to be and talk to them about how bad it can be if you are in an accident in a piece of equipment like this,” said Megan King, an operator for O’Neall & Scholl Farms in Cooksville, east of Bloomington-Normal. “These pieces of equipment are a lot bigger than cars, so it can cause a bad accident. So we just try and tell them all the safety tips possible to keep everybody safe.”
Claire Kuipers is a junior who plans to study agriculture after high school — cattle embryology, specifically — but has not yet decided where. She said she has started driving already and learned a lot from the presenters.
“These vehicles cannot see you if you are directly behind them. You need to give them plenty of space. If you can see their mirrors, they can see you, but if you can't see their mirrors, they can't see you,” said Kuipers.
Students were also taught to remain patient.
Austin O’Neall, of LeRoy, is vice president of O’Neall & Scholl Farms. He is also King’s brother. He explained how hard it is to stop a semi truck when it is fully loaded with grain.
“This thing weighs 80,000 pounds, so it takes much longer to stop than it would for a regular vehicle,” said O’Neall. “So don't ever think that you can pull out when that truck’s a long way away.”
Operators for a combine or sprayer will often pull over as far as they can when a car is behind them, but if they can't it may mean a safe pass cannot safely be made.
“We hate seeing a line of cars behind us, so we try and do our best to make sure none of that happens,” King explained to students.
For a piece of machinery going about 25 to 30 miles per hour on a country road, King said a car trailing that vehicle will lose about six minutes every two miles.
“I know six minutes can be a lot when you're trying to get home or get to practice or get to school, but we always say it's better to get somewhere late than not get there at all,” said King.
“You just need to wait and add that extra time onto your daily route to work or school,” said Kuipers. “Yes, you may be late, but it is worth it, so you don't get injured, you don't get in an accident.”
