Tall corn, uncontrolled intersections dangerous combo for motorists

Tall corn and uncontrolled intersections, particularly in rural areas, can be a dangerous combination for motorists this time of year.

In the past week, four people died in crashes in Bremer County and Mahaska County at uncontrolled rural intersections in which tall corn may have limited visibility.

'It is easy to forget when you drive those routes all year and you are not used to seeing any one, then the corn is up, to just assume no one is there,” said Bremer County Sheriff's Office Detective Dave MacDonald.

A grid of dirt roads covers Iowa's countryside statewide with an intersection roughly every mile. Most of those low traffic intersections are uncontrolled, meaning they don't have stop or yield signs, according to the Iowa Department of Transportation.

As corn hits peak height before harvest, it can block cars, farm equipment and even the clouds of dust signaling oncoming traffic.

'When you have 10-12 foot tall corn you aren't going to see the car coming,” said Jason Russell, president of the Linn County Farm Bureau. 'You can't see anything until you are hanging out in the cross road.”

Since 2004, Iowa has had 451 crashes, 25 fatalities and 514 injuries at rural intersections in which vision was limited by crops or trees, according to Iowa DOT data. The 72 injuries in 2014 were the most since 2004, 45 crashes were more than average and four fatalities matched the high mark.

State transportation and law enforcement officials say adding more signs is not a likely option, in most cases, due to the large number of uncontrolled intersections.

'It's unfortunate because there are just so many miles of road in Iowa, it's not realistic to put stops signs at all of these intersections,” said Pat Hoye, chief of the Iowa Governor's Traffic Safety Bureau. 'This isn't a new issue. It's is something that happens this time of year. It puts the point back to the driver to really be more cautions at these intersections.”

Public agencies are urging drivers to take caution. Slow down and treat uncontrolled intersections as a 'yield,” particularly when crops are blocking the view, they said.

'Treat every uncontrolled intersection as if you should be able to stop just in case,” said Cathy Cutler, of the Iowa DOT district six office. 'Most of the crashes are not people unfamiliar with the area.”

Cutler said adding a stop or yield may be ignored by motorists on low traffic roads so it's not a cure all. Jurisdiction over the intersections falls to the county, although the DOT has funds if a case can be made, she said. 

Bremer County Engineer Todd Fonkert estimated 75 percent of the approximately 325 intersections in his county are uncontrolled, but collisions are rare and they don't anticipate making changes at this point. 

'We are not actively or proactively putting control devices in,” Fonkert said. 'This time of year we have the problem with the adjacent landowner's crop restricting visibility at intersection. It's this incident (on Monday) that drew attention.”

After fatal crashes at uncontrolled intersection in 2012 and 2013, Linn County officials placed stop signs at the 19 rural four-way intersections with speed limits of 55 mph, said County Engineer Steve Gannon.

The county is now reviewing whether to add signs at T-intersections, he said.

Senior Trooper Bob Conrad, an Iowa State Patrol safety education officer based in Cedar Rapids, agreed drivers must use caution and not assume traffic isn't coming. However, he said such collisions are rare, so there hasn't been a push to eliminate uncontrolled intersections.

'Between the low amount of traffic and the high amount of intersections, it's not something we deal with a lot,” Conrad said.