Rear-End Collisions Most Common in Farm Equipment Crashes; K-State Expert Urges Road Safety as Peak Season Begins

Collisions between agricultural equipment and passenger vehicles happen most often between May and October. K-State assistant professor in the department of agricultural and biological engineering, Ed Brokesh, explained other statistics about roadway incidents, including when during the day they usually happen.

“Most of these accidents occur during the middle of the afternoon between noon and 6:00 PM, with probably the highest number in that 3:00 to 5:00 PM time frame, and that’s that’s common. Really common for farm equipment. It’s also common for just general traffic, so if there’s going to be an accident. Most likely it’s going to be in that one to 6:00 PM time frame,” said Brokesh.

Brokesh said there are five types of incidents they’ve been looking at- rear end collisions, left turn, fixed object, side swipes and intersections. He said rear end collisions are the most common type of crash between a personal vehicle and a piece of ag equipment.

He discussed what agricultural equipment operators need to remember before getting on the road.

“We need to pay attention to the stop signs and follow the rules of the road that are we’ve learned in drivers Ed and and such. I mean they apply to us. I think the other thing is, is that as farmers need to make sure that their equipment is visible when they’re on the road, obviously large percentage of rear end crashes don’t fully understand why those occur,” said Brokesh.

Brokest said if you don’t have all the safety equipment on the back of your machine, then you don’t have a chance of being seen.

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