Stay Safe When Sharing the Road with Our Local Farmers!
By Carol Bessemer
I saw an article in The Marion Star a little while ago and I thought about the fact that we all need to be reminded about road safety, especially this time of year. As most of you are aware, I am a transplant from Marion County to Summit County.
The 
article was about a Case 4994 farm tractor hitting a car head on and the 26 year old driver of the car perished. His 7 year old son and the tractor driver were taken to the hospital. Oh, how terrible, traumatic and horrible this accident had to be for the young boy. Not to mention the tractor driver who saw it unfolding in front of him. I feel so badly for all the families. The car driver also had 2 other children. The father and son were driving a Honda Civic which is a small car, but the tractor is a large 4 wheel drive piece of equipment. The tractor alone weighed between 26,500 lbs. to 39,930 lbs., depending how it was equipped. It probably had 8 tires and we don’t know what kind of equipment he had behind this tractor. We need to remember that it is the time of year when farmers spend some of their time on the road going to different fields. They legally are not going over the 25 mph speed limit for them and have the triangle slow moving sign on the rear, but they are SO big and heavy and freewheeling that it might appear like they are going faster than the 25 mph. They cannot stop on a dime. How do I know? Well, I drove tractor for many, many years. In fact, I drove tractor while pregnant. We finished planting 3 weeks before my daughter was born when I got off the tractor that summer. I covered 100 acres a day. I have driven the big ones with the equipment (disc or digger and cultipacker) all behind me. Yes, I stayed on my side of the road. However, I had to go over the centerline many times to avoid a mailbox, paper box or car that was on the side of the road. Yes, I pulled over and stopped many times to let those cars behind me go around. However, sometimes you just can’t do that. I’ve seen many an impatient driver from my seat high in the tractor. They just can’t wait. And they never stop to think what would happen if the two of us met.
Summit County is considered an urban county and yes, we still have farms in this county. However, we all do love to go to our farmers’ markets in the summer. Many times it is not possible for the farmer to grow everything right on his farm and he has to go down the road to the neighboring farm for planting, cultivating and harvesting. We need to be watching for these slow moving pieces of equipment. Many of us do travel to a surrounding county that is more rural and where we will see not only the assorted equipment but the Amish horse and buggy, as well. We must be more cautious and respectful of others that share the roads with us.
Stay safe! 
