It’s summer. We’re all in a hurry to get to the lake, home to the a/c, to the city to have some summer fun. We’re on vacation and we want to make the most of our time off work.
But at the same time, it’s harvest season. The roads and railways are busy with harvesters trying to get the crop out of the field and into the grain elevator. The equipment and trucks or engines that move it are big, high powered and hard to stop. Some of it doesn’t fit inside a standard lane of traffic. It’s often slow moving while being transported from one field to another. And when something has unfamiliar shapes and shadows on it appears on the roadway, it may be a little difficult to identify at a distance in spite of flashing lights attached to it.
Every summer it seems there are multiple reports of accidents, injuries and even deaths associated with the large equipment on the roads, in addition to the already heavy truck traffic attached to the oil and gas industry.
We must share the road and rail crossings if we want the good things that are part of the harvest and oil and gas.
So first off, slow down. If it takes a few minutes for your brain to figure out what the heck that behemoth coming toward you in the opposite lane or in front of you in your lane is, so be it. Take the time to look twice and adjust your rate of travel.
Second, pay attention. That means put down the phone. Tractors, semis and trailers pulling harvest equipment heads do their best to maintain their lane of travel, but things that big and heavy tend to wander. And sometimes they are oversize. Yes, it is the obligation of the driver to remain in control, but would you rather be right, or alive?
Third, give these big boys the proper space. Cut them a wide berth. Try not to pass on a bridge, even if you have to tap the brakes or speed up. It is a law of physics that two objects cannot occupy the same space at the same time.
There are probably a million other rules about sharing the road and rail crossings with heavy equipment, trucks and trailers. But these will go a long way to keeping you and yours safer.
Lastly, always look twice. How much longer does it take to look again? Maybe a tenth of a second? And it could save a life.
I saw just such a situation a few days ago. While at Jacky’s Lawn and Lube picking out some plants, a semi locked up its brakes, left the roadway and skidded to a shuddering halt. Trying to make sense of what had just happened, I was looking for a blown tire when I noticed a pickup truck driven by an elderly gentleman crossing Russworm Avenue. Luckily the traffic that was westbound had stopped and just allowed him to mosey across, but the truck had to take serious evasive action. It was such a close miss that the grill guard on pickup was touching the trailer on the semi.
The driver of the tractor trailer pulled off into the parking lot of the Family Dollar and stepped out of his truck. He asked the old gentleman if he was ok, went on his way.
I noticed the name on the truck cab and the next day emailed the driver’s boss to let them know what had happened and that the driver had saved a life that day. Not only that, but he had also missed the lawn mowers at Jacky’s, two power poles and a few street signs. If it hadn’t been so scary, it would have been a thing of beauty.
Later that day, the wife of this good driver called me. The boss had called her, and she wanted to talk. Turns out her husband, Jeremy Maxwell, had been in a serious accident just a year ago.
“God had his hand on Jeremy that day,” she said, because he hadn’t been grievously injured.
That afternoon, Jeremy himself gave me a call, unaware I had talked to his better half. What he told me was more amazing than the job he had done bringing the truck to a safe halt without hitting anything.
He had seen that the driver of the pickup was an older gentleman. And in that instant, he made the conscious decision to risk being hurt himself rather than even sideswiping the pickup, because he knew as a young man, he could recover more easily than an older driver.
Call it skill, call it luck, call it the hand of God. But we should all drive – and live – like Jeremy Maxwell.