There have been 114 crashes involving farm equipment on Michigan roads so far this year, two of them fatal, according to the latest Michigan State Police data reported by Michigan Farm News. In 2025 the state recorded 179 such crashes and three deaths, and the police Traffic Crash Dashboard shows October has historically had the second-highest number of crashes involving farm equipment.
Harvest has started slowly. As of 27 September only 1% of Michigan's corn and 10% of its soybeans had been harvested, according to USDA, so much more machinery is expected on rural roads in the coming weeks.
"Harvest has gotten off to a slow start in Michigan, so while you may not have seen a lot of farm equipment moving on rural roadways, farmers will be hard at work in the coming weeks," said Justin Tomei, associate legislative counsel at Michigan Farm Bureau, which is reminding drivers and its more than 40,000 farmer members to be ready to share the road.
Tomei pointed to stopping distances: a car travelling at 55 miles an hour needs 300 feet to brake, about the length of an American football field, to avoid running into the back of farm equipment moving at 15 miles an hour. "It's critical that farmers and drivers slow down and pay attention when traveling the countryside," he said.
Photo: Robert Ashworth / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
Source: Michigan Farm News
Comments
(0)