It never seems to fail that harvest and rain tend to be inseparable, resulting in mud being transferred from the field to the road. For those harvesting, please be attentive to the material you are displacing and make every effort to minimize the amounts left on the road. This may mean equipment left on site to clean in between every load. The law that pertains to the placement of foreign material on the roadway is: 346.94(5) Placing Injurious Substances on Highway, which states “No Person shall place or cause to be placed upon a highway any foreign substance which is or may be injurious to any vehicle or part thereof.” While we have taken an educational approach regarding these responses and have issued warnings, there comes a time when warnings transition to citations.
As long as we are on the subject of state statutes, here’s another one that is quite relevant: 346.51(1) “Improper parking on/off roadway.” Whether you are using the road to offload a piece of construction equipment or to transfer loads from a field, it is your obligation to observe proper safety practices.
This may mean putting out warning signs, cones, or even deploying flag persons. Almost daily, we receive complaints of roadways being obstructed by individuals or companies with equipment on the road, creating a situation where vehicles are crossing into the opposite traffic lane. Responding officers arrive and work with the business or individual to rectify the problem. Unfortunately, if the area cannot be made safe, the only other option is to shut down the operation until it can be made secure. If you know you will be offloading or staging equipment on a roadway, please plan by checking the area to see the level of warning devices you may need. Check with the town official for that area to see if you will be on a town road, and the county highway superintendent to see if you are on a county or state highway. Again, we have approached this issue from an educational perspective for many years, and the time has passed where ignorance of the law will be accepted.
In the end, the responsibility for a potential accident caused by poor planning or a failure to provide proper warning will fall to the individual or business creating the hazard. If you are traveling in the countryside and observe what you feel is a traffic hazard, please call law enforcement, and we will respond. Together, we can keep our roads safe.
For those in the general public who may find themselves in proximity to the harvesting process, please use caution when operating around these pieces of equipment. They have many blind spots and may stop or turn to move in and out of field driveways and side roads.
Having been fortunate enough to have grown up in the farming community, I know the sense of urgency that comes with both planting and harvesting; however, no shortcut or increased speed will make a difference when someone becomes injured, and any potential savings will pale in comparison to the cost of tragedy.
