TRENTON, N.C. (WNCT)- The Jones County Sheriff is urging drivers to be more cautious with warmer weather approaching because more farmers are preparing their fields for produce and they’ll be traveling in large equipment on the roads.

Gerald Banks says he has been a farmer for years and he worries every time he has to drive his tractor on the roadways.

“If you’re sitting there in a vehicle that is flying up on you, you don’t know if it’s going to hit you or go around you in time before it meets oncoming traffic,” explained Banks.

Banks says large tractors can only reach speeds of about 20 to 30 miles per hour, so it doesn’t take long for a car to catch up.

Banks said, “A lot of people just run up on it really fast and they are in a hurry to wherever their destination is and they will pass in curves or on yellow lines.”

Banks says large tractors can only reach speeds of about 20 to 30 miles per hour. It doesn’t take long for a car to catch up. In 2014, there were around 150 accidents involving farm equipment on roadways in the state which lead to one death and 31 injuries.

Don Stewart said, “We have to be more patient I believe and more considerate.”

With the peak growing season around the corner, Don Stewart says people need to keep an eye out for farmers on the roads so everyone can get to their destination safely.

Stewart explained, “People are in a hurry now and trying to get the way to work or whatever, but so is the farmer. He is on his way to work and he is the one who supply’s with what we eat.”

If you see a tractor on the road Banks says, “Give everyone a chance to get off the road or out the way or take that little extra time to get to their destinations.”