Tall corn obstructs roadway views

The Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT) is urging motorists to take special caution at rural intersections this summer. According to a DOT press release issued earlier this week, Iowa?s corn crop is on pace to be one of the largest ever recorded. While this is great news to the state?s farmers, it means that motorists have to worry about newly obstructed views.

The DOT?s statistics show that there were 46 crashes last year that were attributed to trees or crops obstructing a motorist?s view. One person died as a result of these crashes and at least 49 people were injured. An average of two people die each year in Iowa due to sight obstructions on rural gravel intersections and driveways.

Iowa DOT spokesperson Dena Gray-Fisher said this problem of corn obstructing views has become more acute in recent years for two reasons. The first reason is that horticulturists are getting better and better at growing taller and taller corn through crossbreeding. The second reason is that fewer farmers own livestock today, which means they have no need for a fence. Many farmers have removed their fences to make room for more crops. This means crops are planted closer to the intersection than they were years ago. Gray-Fisher said farmers can legally plant crops where they want as long as it?s on their property.

Compounding the problem is that rural intersections are often uncontrolled, meaning there is no stop or yield sign at them. Railway crossings are marked with a crossbuck, which serves as a yield sign.

Iowa DOT state safety engineer Jeremey Vortherms said, ?Anytime a driver does not have a clear view of what may be coming from a side road, the driver needs to use extra caution. When on a rural road, it is easy to focus on your own driving and forget that there are others sharing the road with you.?

Where a view of on-coming cars or cross-traffic is obscured, motorists should act as if they had a stop sign, said Vortherms. He recommends not entering the intersection or crossing the railroad tracks until the driver ascertains there are no trains or vehicles coming from the cross roads.

The dry weather in the first half of July may have made travel a little safer on gravel roads. Vortherms said the appearance of dust from an approaching vehicle on a gravel roadway is often used by motorists as a signal to slow down at a rural intersection. However, wet weather and road treatments that control dust prevent motorists from noticing one another. Vortherms also warned that loose gravel can make controlling a vehicle difficult when making a sudden stop.

?Defensive driving at slower speeds on rural roads is critical at this time of year,? he said.

Even a moving object as large as a train can be difficult to spot behind a row of corn. Tammy Nicholson of the DOT said that is true even though trains are rather tall themselves.

?Although trains are considerably taller than most crops, it still becomes difficult to see them approaching an uncontrolled intersection where the view is obstructed by vegetation or other visibility hazards,? said Nicholson.

Nicholson urges motorists to remember the three Ls when crossing railroad tracks: ?look, listen and live.?