With the value of our equipment, we don't want to take the ditch. We don't do anything after dark anymore just because of safety, and holidays are out of the question. It's like suicide. Kendell Thedens, a grain and hay farmer near Rowley, has noticed cooperation between motorists and farmers falter the past few years. He attributes this to the changing rural landscape.
People are just in a hurry.
We're trying to make our living, and people have to respect that. But Thedens realizes respect goes both ways. Farmers should hug the right side of the road to give motorists more room to pass, signal turns, drive with flashers on and display slow-moving vehicle signs in highly visible areas. Another courtesy farmers could extend more is pulling over in field driveways or unoccupied intersections to let vehicles pass. An Iowa State University Extension study counted 1,333 accidents in Iowa involving passenger vehicles and agriculture equipment from 1988-92, almost one a day.