An analysis of the safe movement of farm equipment on the New Brunswick highway network

The farming and agriculture industry has always been an important part of New Brunswick's heritage. Farms and farm equipment continue to increase in size, and farmland is often spread out across large areas and separated by roads, making it necessary for farmers to transport equipment across public roads. Meanwhile, passenger vehicle traffic and transport truck traffic continues to increase on New Brunswick's roads. All of these factors together with the fact that farm equipment still does not have the safety features essential to other vehicles using the highways, increases the magnitude of potential damage that historically has resulted from accidents involving this equipment.;There were 215 accidents involving farm equipment on public roads in New Brunswick between 1993 and 2003. Three accident configurations accounted for over half of these accidents. These accident configurations included a vehicle attempting to overtake the farm equipment while the farm equipment was turning left, collisions at intersections, and collisions where a vehicle rear-ended slow moving farm equipment. Each of these accident configurations may have been prevented if the farm equipment was equipped with better conspicuity markings such as signal and brake lights, and retro-reflective tape.;The benefits of retrofitting farm equipment with retro-reflective tape and lighting systems outweigh the costs that may result if the equipment is not retrofitted. It is expected that implementing guidelines for the application of conspicuity markings would reduce the occurrence of accidents involving farm equipment on public roads.;Two surveys were completed for this project: one of a sample of Canadian and American jurisdictions, and one of farm owners across New Brunswick. The survey of Farm owners across New Brunswick showed that Ninety-three percent of farm owners reported moving equipment on the provincial highway network.