This is Farm Safety Week. The Fall harvest is underway. Motorists need to be extra careful and aware of slow moving farm equipment on roadways.

Area police agencies are asking the motoring to realize that farm equipment includes not only tractors and combines, but grain trucks, grain wagons, truck tractor semi-trailers, auger wagons and trailers. Such equipment should be marked with a slow moving vehicle emblem.

Farmers are hitting the roads with their farm equipment, headed for the fields. Crashes involving farm equipment are not uncommon in Illinois; a state where the majority of over-all land is farmland. East-central Illinois records some of the highest farm equipment crashes.

Officials remind motorists that patience and courtesy is key to safety on the road. It is critical to use caution, slow down and share the road. Studies show that left-turn, rear-end and passing collisions are the most common types of accidents involving motorists and farm machinery.

94.1 WGFA