CASSOPOLIS, Mich. – While harvest season is winding down, farmers are still out on the roads. Both police and safety experts want drivers to remember to use caution when sharing the road with farm equpment. 

Two recent Michigan accidents highlight the risks farmers face. 

Michael Studer, 55, of Niles Mich., was injured on On Oct. 23 in Howard Township in Cass County. 

Studer was slowing down on Leet Road to turn left onto Worrell Street, according to the Cass County Sheriff’s Office. Police said Studer was in the process of turning but wound up in the path of a vehicle attempting to pass him from behind in the opposite lane. The passenger vehicle then struck the tractor.

Studer was taken to Memorial Hospital in South Bend with undisclosed injuries.

In early August, fifth-generation farmer, Paul Burns, 73, of Cassopolis, was killed when he was rear-ended on his tractor by a pick-up truck, also in Cass County.

According to Michigan State Police, both drivers were southbound on Calvin Center Road when the crash happened. The driver of the pick-up truck, whose name has not been released, along with his passengers suffered only minor injuries.

Police said distracted driving is believed to be a factor in the collision.

According to family members, Burns had a passion for preserving the farm that has been in his family since 1843.

Michigan State Police Lt. DuWayne Robinson said drivers should expect slow-moving farm vehicles during harvest season.

“Obey the speed limit to allow time to react to large, slow-moving tractors. Keep hands on the wheel and eyes on the road to minimize distractions and ensure safety,” he said.

Bill Field, a farm safety expert from Purdue University, said drivers should be more cautious during harvest not just to avoid death and injury to themselves and others but to prevent potentially very costly lawsuits.

Field said some drivers might not have enough coverage on their insurance policies to completely cover judgments from lawsuits awarded to injured farmers or families of farmers killed in such crashes. Any judgments above insurance coverage limits could result in drivers at fault having to pay the difference, he said.

“That’s where the real money comes from. They’re going to go after every-thing,” he said.

Field said the risk of injury and death to drivers in passenger vehicles from collisions with farm machinery is also higher because of how the equipment has grown in size enough over the years for the force of impacts to be greater.

In addition, Field said more pieces of equipment are wide enough to require being operated partially in the opposite lane of a two lane road or on the shoulder.

He said the travel safety risk is not helped during a period when a higher per-centage of drivers seem more aggressive behind the wheel and less likely to avoid a collision at the unexpected site of a tractor or combine a short distance away on the road.

Field said the chances of a collision also go up from the use of cell phones and other driver distractions.

“The next thing you know you’re right into the rear end of a piece of equipment,” he said. Field, who operates a small farm, said he was once involved in a collision when a drunken driver after rounding a curve plowed into the rear his small tractor. He was spared by a 300-gallon tank containing sap strapped to the back end of his machine.

“What saved my life was that maple sap. It acted like a huge shock absorber,” he said.

Despite public reminders for drivers to be courteous while encountering farm machinery, Field said fewer drivers seem not to consistently practice it as they did in the past.

“There needs to be a mutual respect. The farmers are not out there to irritate you. They just got to move from field to field,” he said.