The North Carolina Farm Bureau is warning drivers to watch out for tractors and farm equipment on the roads this summer. There are more than 200 crashes a year in the state involving farm vehicles, tractors, or farm equipment - often deadly.
"I had a brother killed on a tractor accident many years ago. So you know, I understand what folks are going through, and so that's why we just try to share this message: Please, please, slow down," said Shawn Harding, the president of the NC Farm Bureau.
Harding said the issue is pretty widespread across the state, including as far as the Wilmington area. From 2015-2019, the top five North Carolina counties for farm vehicle accidents are Wake, Guilford, Johnston, Sampson and Wayne. "The problem is, you know, we're all running 60, 70, whatever, miles-per-hour. These pieces of (farm) equipment, probably depending on the equipment, go 10 or 15 or 20 miles an hour, as fast as they can go," he said. "And you come up on them so quickly that, you know, this is where the danger is."
The NC Farm Bureau said cutting your speed from 65 mph to 20 mph for about a mile might delay you by two minutes, but it might save a life. Studies have found that 82% of farm equipment crashes involve a non-farm vehicle. According to the organization, rural roads carry less than half of America's traffic yet they account for more than half of the nation's vehicular deaths.
