(Radio Iowa) -A northwest Iowa sheriff says his deputies have recently responded to a few collisions at rural intersections where the height of corn is obscuring the view of approaching vehicles. Sioux County Sheriff Nate Huizenga has advice for drivers who can’t see cross traffic because corn stalks are in the way.
Some motorists on gravel roads watch for a plume of dust as a sign that another vehicle is approaching, but Huizenga says that method is not always reliable.
Gravel-road speed limits are 55 miles per hour during the day and 50 at night, but the sheriff says those are maximum limits that aren’t necessarily safe under certain conditions.
Under good growing conditions, a corn stalk will be about eight feet tall by midsummer and some are in the 12 foot range, which is as high as a one-story building. According to the Iowa D-O-T, there are nearly 20-thousand intersections on Iowa roads that do not have any stop or yield signs. That accounts for about 12 percent of all intersections in the state. In 2020, there were over 400 crashes at uncontrolled intersections. The Iowa State Patrol’s report of a fatal accident last August indicates two drivers entered a rural intersection near Ogden at the same time due to tall corn blocking their view and both vehicles wound up in a nearby bean field.
