Let’s All Brake For Harvest!

#BrakeForHarvest social media campaign warns drivers in ag regions to use caution on roads busy with harvest crews and equipment

It’s that time of year again. Harvest is upon us, and in the Central Valley and on the Central Coast, it’s an earlier harvest than in previous seasons due to a warmer spring, and harvest is coinciding with back to school to make our roads even busier this time of year.

Throughout California, August marks the start of the busy harvest season, with tomatoes, almonds, grapes and other fruits, nuts and vegetables being harvested at all hours of the day and night — right as school buses, parents on morning drop-off runs, and students walking or biking to class return to our rural roads in force. That overlap is exactly why Holloway Agriculture is once again promoting its #BrakeForHarvest Public Service Announcement campaign through October, urging rural drivers to use extra caution while traveling through agricultural areas where harvest machinery and crews are working. This season, the campaign is back with a new tagline reminding drivers in rural areas to: “SLOW DOWN. STAY ALERT. SAVE LIVES.”

According to the Census of Agriculture, nearly 4.5 million farm vehicles operate on U.S. farmlands, and those vehicles are overrepresented in road crashes considering their limited miles traveled. Additionally, several studies have found a majority of farm vehicle collisions occur in the fall, with October being the peak month as harvest season accounts for nearly 40% of farm vehicle crashes.

“On behalf of our agriculture operations and logistics partners, we want to remind rural drivers to slow down and stay alert while traveling through harvesting regions,” Holloway wrote in a press release, kicking off the campaign. “It’s a busy time of year, kids are back in school and harvest is ramping up at the same time, so we’re asking drivers to put their phones down, watch closely at intersections and busy harvest zones, and give our ag workers, residents and children the safety they deserve.”

California Highway Patrol Public Information Officer Hector Carias, who works out of the Central Division office in Fresno, reiterates patience is key when encountering farm vehicles on our roadways. He also shared the following tips for this harvest season:

“As harvest season approaches, you may encounter slow-moving farm equipment on rural roads,” Officer Carias said. “Be patient. Farm vehicles move much slower than regular traffic, often under 25 mph. Avoid tailgating and give them plenty of space.”

Officer Carias shared more tips for rural drivers as part of the campaign below, adding drivers should pass safely and stay alert in harvest areas, particularly when an orange triangle on equipment signals a slow-moving farm vehicle.

“When you see this,” he concluded, “reduce speed and be prepared to share the road.”

For a firsthand look at what that traffic looks like from inside an active harvest operation, we spoke with Scott Dewar of Crown Harvesting in Bakersfield, whose crews run pistachio harvest operations in mid-August during the busiest weeks of the year as kids go back to school.

“Unfortunately, there’s one or two fatalities every year,” Dewar said. “Out here, I run a shuttle, my daughter runs another shuttle, and my partner runs the (harvesting) elevator — his son’s out here too, moving around the operation.

“We do have a plan: right now everything’s moving counterclockwise, so all the shuttles and water trucks are going the same direction. But you’ve still got blind corners around the trees, and we talk about it constantly — only drive what you can see, and if you can’t see, be prepared to stop.

Dewar said, as an ag operator, you have to be prepared for the unexpected during the busy harvest season, and that means being cautious for residential vehicles driving onto private ag operations and farms as well.

“We get regular vehicles coming around those corners not expecting a truck doing fifteen or twenty miles an hour with a load of pistachios, and you’re not stopping that quick,” he added. “It’s something we’re very aware of out here, and it’s something we talk about a lot.”

The concept for the #BrakeForHarvest PSA campaign came about a couple seasons ago while then-Holloway Ag Operations Manager Alex Parsons was driving across the Central Valley enroute to an orchard removal project, when he noticed heavy equipment operators having a hard time making the turn onto a ranch while residents sped past dangerously.

Parsons brought the safety concerns up to Holloway VP of Communications Brian Milne, noting it would make a great PSA campaign for the ag industry to warn drivers of the challenges drivers and harvest crews were faced with when mobilizing harvesting equipment, trailers, and moving from ranch to ranch during the busy harvest season.

Parsons has since moved on from Holloway to serve as Planting Manager for Grimmway Farms, a role that’s given him an even wider view of just how much of the year our roads run through active farmland.

“People tend to think of this as a harvest-season issue, but honestly, it doesn’t stop there,” said Parsons, Planting Manager for Grimmway Farms. “Whether we’re planting or harvesting, there’s equipment, trailers and crews moving between fields all year long, and a lot of that movement happens right alongside regular traffic on rural roads. I’d just ask drivers to stay alert and give us a little extra room whenever they’re driving through ag country — not just in the fall. It matters just as much in planting season as it does at harvest.”

Holloway asks those in the agriculture industry and beyond to reshare and support the #BrakeForHarvest campaign during the harvest season running through the end of the year.

Social media followers and other ag vendors are welcome to visit brakeforharvest.com and download #BrakeForHarvest logos, example social media posts, and photos of harvest machinery moving on our local roadways.

Good luck to all of our growers, and thank you to all of our harvest crews and partners this harvest season — including Scott Dewar and the team at Crown Harvesting, and Alex Parsons and the crew at Grimmway. Be safe out there!

Holloway asks those in the agriculture industry and beyond to reshare and support the #BrakeForHarvest campaign during the harvest season running through the end of the year.

Social media followers and other ag vendors are welcome to visit brakeforharvest.com and download #BrakeForHarvest logos, example social media posts, and photos of harvest machinery moving on our local roadways.

Good luck to all of our growers and thank you to all of our harvest crews and partners this harvest season. Be safe out there!

Tips from the CHP

As harvest season approaches, you may encounter slow-moving farm equipment on rural roads. Stay safe by following these tips, courtesy California Highway Patrol Public Information Officer Hector Carias:

Tips for Ag Operations

This year, Officer Carias and the CHP Central Division also shared a set of tips aimed specifically at agricultural operations and equipment operators, posted to the CHP Central Division’s Instagram:

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by CHP Central Division (@chp_centraldivision)

Thank you to CHP-Central Division Public Information Officer Hector Carias for his contributions to the campaign!

Media Exposure