Eastern Ontario farmer Cynthia Daoust urged farmers to have situational awareness while driving farm equipment on public roads. Keep an eye on the rearview mirror as vehicles can close the gap quickly, she said.
Be sure all your lights are on, your insurance policy is up to date and call your local firefighters
Nelson Zandbergen
Farmers Forum
FINCH — In the rear-view mirror of his New Holland tractor, Bernard Daoust saw the rapidly approaching headlights of a vehicle behind him on County Rd. 43. It was dusk, between 4:30 and 5 p.m. on a clear late-November evening in 2023, and the Stormont County dairy farmer hugged the road’s shoulder as he drove eastbound, returning home from a nearby repair shop with a plow hooked up to the tractor. Functioning LED lights and a slow-moving vehicle sign were dutifully affixed to the implement, but no matter: Moments later, the Mercedes van crashed into the plow, puncturing the vehicle like a shish kabob. The lucky lone van driver was just inches away from the plow that skewered the empty passenger seat.
The collision severely damaged the plow and wrecked the TM120-model tractor, which spun into a shallow ditch from the force of impact. The wrenching action snapped the three point hitch, broke the rear axle and tore off one of the big rear wheels and spindle, also damaging the cab. The machine remained upright because the front-end loader caught the ground.
The farmer escaped with bruises and a sprained back, but the incident disrupted operations at his small Ayrshire dairy operation where the tractor was a mission-critical piece of equipment.
No one was ticketed in the collision, and Cynthia Daoust, wife and co-owner of the family farm, still wonders about the van driver’s claim of not seeing the lit-up tractor and plow before the crash. The setting sun was behind them, she noted. “It wasn’t a case that the guy had sunlight in his eyes,” she told Farmers Forum.
In her estimation, there are valuable lessons learned when a road accident takes a key farm asset out of commission.
Protect yourself by diligently following the rules.
First off, the incident confirmed the importance of observing all legally required safety precautions when moving equipment on the road, as her husband did. This meant the family only had the considerable logistical challenges of a destroyed tractor and plow to deal with, not any legal fallout. “Always have all your lights on, every light you can think of. Put them on when you’re on the road,” she emphasized, also stressing the need for situational awareness by checking rearview and side mirrors. She said her husband spotted the van in the mirror at quite a distance and was “really, really shocked” at how quickly the van closed the gap.
Call the fire department
Farmers dealing with the immediate aftermath of a road accident should look to their local fire department to help safely clear the road, assess spills, manage traffic and triage the injured — but firefighters won’t show up unless requested when the 9-1-1 call is made, according to Daoust. That was her husband’s experience: He was in shock and only asked the 9-1-1 operator for police.
As a consequence, neither driver was triaged at the scene and one lone cop showed up to investigate, she said. In the end, “the neighbours lent their scraper and broom and the two guys that were in the accident were the ones who cleaned the road” of the glass scattered on the asphalt, she added. The road was never properly closed to accommodate the clean-up and removal of the damaged equipment, although a kind stranger in a white half-ton truck with an amber light helped manage traffic at the scene.
A fire department presence would have ensured a more comprehensive response, including checking the van driver, who was picked up by a friend and without receiving medical evaluation after the police arrived. “I still wonder how the guy was,” she said.
Get your own expert assessments for insurance claims
Daoust also has advice on dealing with the resulting insurance claim. In short, be your own tenacious advocate when dealing with the adjustors. In her case, the combined replacement cost of the tractor — which was written off — and the cost of repairing the plow came to about $50,000. But the family’s insurer initially undervalued that total loss by $15,000 to $20,000.
“You don’t have to take their first offer. It’s just a rule of thumb. They will low-ball it,” said Daoust, who brought in two independent appraisers from local dealerships — at the insurer’s cost — to come up with the actual loss that was ultimately paid out.
The accident highlighted gaps in the family’s insurance policy, particularly around the plow’s coverage. Initially, the insurance company denied coverage to fix the plow, but Daoust’s persistence paid off after she found wording in the policy that supported her case. Review the fine details of insurance policies regularly, she advises.
Have a ‘plan B’ for critical equipment downtime
The accident left the farm without its primary tractor from late November 2023 until February 2024. Not only was the tractor used daily as a loader and a PTO power source for the dairy barn’s crucial TMR feed mixer, it also served as the farm’s primary field tractor.
Renting a replacement — which was covered by insurance — was harder than expected, as many dealerships were reluctant to rent out tractors at that time. “Trying to rent a tractor while you’re trying to find one, that’s not as easy as you would think,” she also observed. Green Tech in Winchester eventually provided a suitable rental, but it took a week of phoning around.
A neighbour’s tractor helped bridge the gap initially, and another neighbour assisted with fieldwork, as the plow wasn’t repaired until the following year.
“It’s always good to have a Plan B in place,” she said. Farmers should identify potential rental sources or neighbouring support in advance to minimize disruptions.
