Jersey Community High School Students Encourage Patience with "Start Seeing Farmers" Initiative
The Jerseyville Future Farmers of America (FFA) chapter supports farmers with their newest harvest season initiative.
JERSEYVILLE - As the harvest season commences, students at Jersey Community High School have started an initiative to promote road safety for farm vehicles.
Get The Latest News!
Don't miss our top stories and need-to-know news everyday in your inbox.
The JCHS Future Farmers of America (FFA) chapter formed the Safety in Agriculture Committee to support farmers. They recently launched the "Start Seeing Farmers" initiative, which aims to bring awareness to farm vehicles and the importance of patience when encountering these vehicles on the road.
“I decided that the ‘Start Seeing Farmers’ initiative would be good because we’re a very large farming community, and it could help us,” said Tucker Woolsey. “I feel like it would help the community, being able to get it out there and say, ‘Hey, there are these things that we could do to help prevent other issues.’”
Woolsey, a sophomore at JCHS, serves as the 2025–2026 FFA sentinel. He is leading the Safety in Agriculture Committee and has worked hard to spread the word about the “Start Seeing Farmers” program.
He noted that crashes between cars and farm vehicles are very common, especially during harvest season when farm equipment is more likely to be on the roadways. In the Midwest, there are over 1,000 farm vehicle crashes each year.
“About 75% of those crashes result in injuries, and it’s usually the non-farm vehicle drivers who face the biggest risk,” Woolsey explained. “One of the things that is most important is to slow down, match the speed of that vehicle, and pass once safe to do so.”
Woolsey, who recently acquired his learner’s permit, is realizing the importance of patience firsthand. He emphasized that safety should always come first when driving near or passing farm equipment.
“Patience is very important when it comes to harvest season,” he added. “Farmers are just trying to do their jobs, just like how people are trying to get to their jobs. Everybody wants to come home, at the end of the day.”
More like this:
- Most Popular
- Top Stories
- Most Recent
