Respect all road users even tractors
Police are urging motorists and agricultural contractors to be patient and share mutual respect for each other on local roads.
With many agricultural contractors currently using local roads to access properties during silage production, police have reinforced the need for co-operation between contractors and other road users.
Police urged for all road users to be patient, share the road and respect each other.
While past years have not proven problematic for collisions, police said if there was a collision between an agricultural vehicle and car, it would be tragic.
Baw Baw highway patrol senior constable Paul Staley said head-on collisions resulted in some of the most serious injuries they see.
“T-bone collisions and collisions involving vulnerable road users (cyclists, motorcyclist and pedestrians) as well as persons who are unrestrained can also result in really serious injuries.
“Overtaking when there’s poor or no visibility of the road and traffic ahead is extremely dangerous and if a collision occurs as a result of driving in a manner dangerous and a person is injured or killed then the offending driver will likely be arrested and charged,” he said.
Sen const Staley said serious collisions often resulted in dangerous driving causing serious injury or death charges.
“Often these offences can result from one bad decision and the consequences greatly outweigh any benefit that the driver hopes to gain from an unsafe overtake or similar.
“It’s your average speed that determines the time it takes you to complete your journey not your maximum speed and being stuck behind a slow moving vehicle for a short period of time isn’t going to be life changing for you or anyone else - but a poor decision to overtake when unsafe can be,” he said.
Sen const Staley urged all drivers to be considerate of one another and for motorists to exercise patience when stuck behind slow moving vehicles.
He said drivers of slow moving vehicles such as agricultural machinery also needed to be considerate and allow traffic to pass when it is safe and an opportunity exists.
“Agricultural operators provide an essential service to the community and we all rely on them to provide that service so it’s important that we allow them to do their important work safely,” he said.