A 64-year-old Batavia woman died Thursday night after her car slammed into the rear of a disabled farm tractor's dump trailer on Lewiston Road in the town of Alabama. Victoria Klimczak was driving east when she struck the trailer, which was attached to a tractor parked on the shoulder with its hazard lights flashing. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
According to audacy.com, troopers responded to the scene in Genesee County at 7:36 p.m. State Police said Klimczak failed to observe the tractor's hazard lights before the collision, and her body was taken to the Monroe County Medical Examiner's office for an autopsy. As News 4 Buffalo reported, Klimczak was behind the wheel of a Chevy Trax at the time of the crash.
A Second Fatal Farm-Equipment Crash This Week
The Lewiston Road crash occurred the same day as another deadly collision involving a parked tractor in the region. A person died after a vehicle slammed into a farm tractor parked on the shoulder of Route 77 near Griswold Road in Niagara County, according to earlier Hoodline reporting. New York State Police confirmed they were investigating that collision, and the victim's identity had not been released; both northbound and southbound lanes of Route 77 at Griswold Road were closed while crews responded.
That same report noted a separate Chenango County collision five days earlier that injured three people and left a 70-year-old man without a hand after a farm tractor and hay wagon crash. The New York State Police Reconstruction Unit and the Bureau of Criminal Investigation assisted with the investigation into the Lewiston Road crash in Genesee County, per wkbw.com.
Why Farm Vehicle Crashes Turn Deadly
The back-to-back fatalities underscore a pattern documented by agricultural safety researchers. A 2019 NYCAMH study found that crashes involving farm vehicles are five times more likely to be fatal than non-agricultural crashes, according to the New York Farm Bureau's press materials on nyfb.org. The organization's data also shows collisions with another vehicle accounted for more than 80 percent of the agriculture-related crashes it described.
The Farm Bureau advises drivers to slow down and increase following distance when they come upon equipment displaying a slow-moving-vehicle emblem, noting that farm equipment traveling under 25 mph must display the marker. State guidance posted by trafficsafety.ny.gov says requirements under New York Vehicle and Traffic Law section 375(36) and Part 68 governing display of that emblem remain in effect, though lighting rules differ between a tractor's power unit and any attached implements.
