It’s Farm Safety Week and a good time for us to remember the importance of the hard-working men and women through South Georgia who keep food on our tables.

Back in March of this year, state troopers said a farmer was driving a 1964 International Harvester on Ga. 300 near Warwick with no lights, when it collided with a semi truck, throwing the farmer 125 feet and causing the tractor to roll over a few times. While the wrecked tractor was in the road, a pickup hit and destroyed it. The tractor driver was transported to a local hospital where he was listed in critical condition.

The Georgia Department of Agriculture and the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety say there is a lot that motorists can do to prevent crashes involving tractors and farm vehicles.

When driving through agricultural areas, motorists need to pay attention, slow down and check their aggression on the roadways.

Georgia Department of Transportation data shows there were 494 crashes involving farm and construction vehicles in Georgia last year that killed 12 people and injured 185 others.

“These tragic accidents can devastate a family and an entire community,” Agriculture Commissioner Gary W. Black has said. “But they are 100 percent avoidable. We are urging everyone on the road this harvest season and every season, to pay attention to our farmers so they can safely continue the good work of putting food on our tables and clothes on our backs.”

Almost 40 percent of the fatal traffic crashes in Georgia occur on rural roads, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Many of the crashes are caused by drivers traveling too fast and not being able to stop in time when they are approaching farm vehicles traveling between 18-25 miles per hour.

“Many farmers are literally having to look over their shoulder because so many people are not paying attention and refusing to slow down for farm vehicles who have the legal right to operate their equipment on our roads,” Harris Blackwood, director of the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety, recently said in a prepared statement. “Farmers are simply asking to share the road especially this time of year when they are working to get their crops to market.”

Georgia law requires all farm vehicles on the road to have triangle-shaped signs which signal they are traveling at speeds significantly slower than normal traffic.

Many farmers also use other devices such as battery-operated flashing lights to help other drivers see them. When it is safe for them to do so, farmers will pull over and allow vehicles to pass.

Motorists need to simply slow down and be cautious as they near slow-moving farm vehicles and remember these growers are feeding and clothing our families.

We all depend on our farmers to feed our families.

This editorial originally ran in The Valdosta Daily Times.