A CORNISH farmer is sharing his story in an effort encourage safer driving on rural roads.

Farmer Glyn Deacon knows what it is like to be involved in a serious accident on a country road, after his tractor was in collision with a car as he emerged from a field gateway.

Glyn suffered concussion, a cracked rib and needed 12 stitches in his forehead after he was thrown into the tractor cab window by the impact.

He was taken to hospital by ambulance for treatment. “I was black and blue,” Glyn said.

The gateway to one of his fields, on the edge of Landulph, joins a narrow road governed by the national speed limit – 60mph. Just a few yards further on the speed limit reduces to 30mph and a passing place has been created following a serious accident in recent years.

Fortunately, the driver of the car was unhurt in the collision last month, although the car was seriously damaged and the wheel of Glyn’s tractor was left buckled. Police attending the incident said no laws were broken and Glyn said he looked both ways before emerging from the gateway but didn’t see the car until it was too late.

Glyn explained: “This was the first accident I have been involved in, but there have been a lot of near misses. I have always taken great care, especially with the tractor on the road, but I am even more cautious now, especially on junctions, even in the truck or the Land Rover.”

He said he thought rural roads were becoming more dangerous, in part because drivers who learn in towns or cities and then move to the countryside don’t always appreciate the particular hazards of rural motoring.

Analysis by NFU Mutual has found that 9,887 have been killed on rural roads in the past 10 years, two-thirds more than the number of deaths on urban roads. In the South West of England, 1,179 people have lost their lives on countryside roads in the past ten years, compared to 370 on urban roads.

According to the analysis of the latest Department for Transport figures in its Rural Road Safety Report 956 people were killed on countryside roads in 2024, 72 per cent more than the 555 on urban roads. In all but one region of Britain, rural road fatalities outstripped those on urban roads. In the South West, 113 people were killed on rural roads last year, almost three times more than the 38 people killed in urban road collisions.

Rural roads are also significantly more deadly when taking into account miles travelled. In 2024, there were 6.3 deaths per billion miles travelled on countryside roads, compared to 4.7 on urban roads and 1.3 on motorways.

With rural roads consistently and disproportionately more dangerous than urban roads, road safety campaigner NFU Mutual is calling for greater training on rural roads for learner drivers and for the creation of a Rural Road Safety Awareness Course for those who offend on rural roads