Donnelle Eller

The Des Moines Register

Drunken drivers who tangle with Midwest farmers in tractors, combines and other equipment often end up losing, a new University of Iowa study shows.

Even though it's a small percentage of total farm road accidents, the five-year study found that 75 percent of drunk-driving accidents between ag equipment and passenger vehicles led to injury or death.

The study looked at crashes in Iowa, North and South Dakota, and Missouri.

“Impaired drivers may be slower to recognize and react to farm equipment, and more likely to misjudge the differences in speed of the equipment on the roadway,” said Karisa Harland, the lead investigator and a member of the faculty of the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine.

"When these crashes occur, they can be devastating," she said.

Police questioned the role alcohol played in the death of farmer Kenny Mosher, 66, of Aurora, whose tractor was rear-ended in April by a pickup truck driven by TV reality star Chris Soules.

Tests conducted by the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation showed Soules wasn't legally drunk or using drugs.

Soules, who gained fame on the TV shows "The Bachelor" and "The Bachelorette," was charged with leaving the scene of a fatal car crash, a class D felony.

Soules' attorneys seek to have the charge dismissed.

If convicted, Soules could be sentenced to as many as five years in prison. A trial is scheduled to begin in January.

The University of Iowa study shows that passenger vehicle drivers were more often impaired than the farmers operating their equipment.

And most crashes resulted from the impaired passenger vehicle driver rear-ending or running head-on into the farm equipment.

It was the car or truck driver who was more likely to be injured, Harland said.

MORE: "Sad deal all around": Chris Soules' hometown reacts to fatal crash

The team of researchers from the University of Iowa and University of Minnesota found 3.1 percent of 1,971 farm equipment crashes involved alcohol.

The study looked at accidents that occurred between 2005 and 2010.

Not surprisingly, a greater percentage of the alcohol-impaired crashes occurred at night and on weekends.

“We know that during critical times of the year, farmers have to work around the clock," said Harland, who encouraged farmers to use additional lights and signs to make their equipment as visible as possible to other drivers.

The study was published in the December edition of "Traffic Injury Prevention."