Air January 26, 2000

Thank you Mark, and good morning everyone. A quick reminder that the in-depth corn school is slated for Monday, January 31. We will be meeting at the 4-H/Sr. Citizens Building and the meeting will run from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. We’ve got a wonderful group of speakers lined up to deal with many of the areas of corn production. Corn acres have tripled in this area over the last 15 years. Regardless of if you are a new corn producer or one of the long standing corn heads this will be a great meeting, don’t miss it.

The weekend accident in Kansas City that involved Derek Thomas is truly tragic. Our hearts go out to the families of everyone involved, including the two survivors. But the painful lesson that is coming out of this is borne by a simple examination of the facts. The one person in that vehicle that had a seat belt on, walked away from the accident. I think I have probably heard every single excuse in the world for not wearing a seat belt. Granted, there is a very small chance that you could be involved in that very rare accident in which you may be injured worse if you are wearing a seat belt. But you are more likely to win the lottery or get hit by lightning! You can rattle off every single safety feature in modern day vehicles: air bags, antilock brakes, impact resistant passenger zones, etc. Etc. Etc. But the amazing thing is that those are all designed to protect you IF you stay inside the passenger cabin zone of the vehicle. The very sort of conditions that contributed to this accident can happen anywhere, any winter. We may be looking at those kind of conditions here in coming days. Ice can occur almost anytime the temperature is below or near freezing. Sometimes you can see that the road is icy, sometimes you can’t. You MUST slow down and utilize every bit of safety equipment in that vehicle. Front wheel drive and four wheel drive vehicles are not immune from loss of control accidents. And that 4 wheel or front wheel drive will not stop you any faster than a rear wheel drive vehicle once you are on a wet, slick, snowy or icy surface. Accidents and tragedies happen every day. But the real tragedy is when the accident or the injuries could have been prevented.

This is Chuck Otte, Geary County Extension Agent, with Ag Outlook 2000.

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