Prevent a disaster by boosting safety habits around farm trucks

In the rush of the harvest season, shortcuts concerning truck safety are a detour to disaster, according to farm safety and transportation experts at North Dakota State University.

“Harvest season always feels too short for the amount of work that has to be done. There is an urge to go faster, work longer and push harder, but a few minutes invested in safety is time well-spent,” notes Angie Johnson, NDSU Extension farm and ranch safety coordinator. “That’s especially true on rural roads where heavy trucks may frequently mingle with other typical traffic.”

North Dakota ranks near the top nationally for truck-involved crash fatality rates, says Kim Vachal, a senior researcher and expert in rural road safety with NDSU’s Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute. State crash records show that 66.7% of serious crashes (those with fatalities and disabling injuries) occurred on rural roads between 2016 and 2020. During that period, 16% of those crashes occurred on gravel roads, more than twice the rate for non-truck crashes.

The NDSU experts recommend several steps for boosting farm truck safety:

At the same time, motorists in rural areas need to be cautious at this time of year as well.

“The bottom line is that all drivers in farm country need to be extra cautious during harvest,” Johnson says. “A few minutes dedicated to safety can prevent a crash that at best results in damage to vehicles and that at worst could result in a serious injury or loss of life.”

For more NDSU Extension information on rural road safety, visit ndsu.ag/trucksafety.