With The Return Of Winter Weather, It’s Time For Safe Roadway Practices

By Shannon Hicks

The three snow storms the region has seen within the past two weeks have brought back memories of some of the things New England residents love about the winter months: scenic views of snow-covered fences, sledding and other sports for kids of all ages, or even the joy of being indoors wrapped up in blankets or sitting in front of a fire while the snow falls outdoors.

For plow drivers, the storms were a reminder of what is difficult about working in the winter. For many drivers and public works crew members, storms can easily lead to 24 consecutive hours of work. As we head into the third full weekend of January 2011, town crews are coming off another long set of hours clearing and maintaining Newtown’s roads (see related story on the January 12 storm).

The December 26–27 storm began early Sunday afternoon and continued well into Monday afternoon. Snow fell on Sunday and had dissipated by early Monday, but continued winds meant plows were out clearing roads and parking lots, often more than once. The story was the same for the next two storms.

For some roads, however, additional runs were necessitated by the addition of snow berms, or the thick banks of snow and often some of the sand left in the wake of a passing snow plow.

Snow berms are inevitable, but they are meant to run parallel to roads. When they run across the travel portion of a road, they are no longer inevitable: they are dangerous. Hitting a snow berm can result in damage to a vehicle or worse, it could throw a driver into a slide or spin.

Berms are also created when a plow is used to push or pull snow from a driveway and across a roadway to clear a driveway. The practice may be easier due to the layout of some driveways, but it is a dangerous and illegal practice.

If a roadway is cleared of snow, and then a second plow does not fully clear away snow that has been dragged across a roadway, a berm is left behind. If left uncleared, these bumps can freeze overnight and create an unexpected bump in a roadway. Left for a few days, berms can soften or melt during the day, and then refreeze, covering a larger space, during the night.

“We had a lot of calls [the night of December 27] because home snowplow drivers were pushing snow out of the driveways,” Newtown Public Works Director Fred Hurley said. “That was a major problem because we had plowed all over town and these guys had just pushed the snow out into the road. We had to go back and fix a lot of the roads.”

This week Mr Hurley’s crews faced more of the same, twice over. With another foot of snow falling on January 7 and then another two-plus feet of snow this past Wednesday, plows were running in overtime and men were pushed to their limits. When town plows encountered private plows that were pushing snow into roadways that had just been cleared by town plows, things got ugly.

“We actually had a few altercations last night were the police had to be called in,” Mr Hurley said Thursday morning.

While Newtown does not have a town ordinance regarding snow being pushed into roadways from private driveways, the state has a statute that addresses the issue.

When clearing a driveway, state statue 19A-335 (Nuisances on Highways) makes it illegal to push snow or ice from private driveways and walks into town roads. The fine for violating the statute is $50.

“We really need a more comprehensive, 24-hour policy, for keeping the roads clear during storms,” said Mr Hurley. “We need teeth, and fines, for people who plow their snow into the roads. It may have to apply to the homeowners, and they may have to stop their snowplow drivers from doing what they’re doing.

“A few years ago we had a similar wave of this,” Mr Hurley continued. “We slowed it a little when we started to keep records and told homeowners that we were keeping records of where these berms were being left in the road. We told the homeowners that if there was an accident in front of their home and it had anything to do with these berms, we were going to turn our information over to insurance companies, and miraculously, the berms really disappeared for a while.”

Mr Hurley said this kind of activity is not always done maliciously.

“You get new crops of snowplow drivers very few years, and I think they really just don’t know any better,” he said. “But honestly, you’d think that common sense would just tell them not to do it.”

Homeowner Responsibilities

Drivers and homeowners also have their own responsibilities to keep roadways safe.

Newtown has an overnight parking restriction that goes into effect for the winter months.

Ordinance 28, Section 295-5 states that vehicles of any kind are not to be parking “on any Town highway in the Town of Newtown from sunset to sunrise from November 15 to March 15.” Vehicles parked on the side of the road, if deemed to be a nuisance to plow drivers, can be towed from that location “at the expense of the owner or the person in possession thereof” (Section 295-6).

Vehicle owners will have to pay to have their vehicles returned (Section 295-7), and will also face a $90 fine (Section 295-8), a fee that was increased in 2003 more than threefold from its original level of $25.

And while plow operators may or may not know the law when it comes to not leaving piles of snow across a roadway, drivers would be wise to start following a smart practice that does not yet go into the law books until December 31, 2013.

When it is time to go out the first time after a storm, drivers should remove snow and/or ice from the top, back, or sides of a vehicle. If snow or ice is not removed before a vehicle is driven, it can break loose from a moving vehicle and create a safety hazard or nuisance for other drives.

Right now, doing this is common sense. As of January 1, 2014, being stopped for not clearing off a noncommercial vehicle will be followed by a $75 fine (commercial vehicles that are stopped for the same violation will be fined at least $200, and if their uncleared vehicle is the cause of an accident after snow or ice dislodges the fine increases to at least $500).

The windows of vehicles must also be cleared of snow and ice before being driven in order to provide unobstructed views for the drivers.

Finally, keep those headlights on.

While many drivers turn on their headlights on when the rain is falling (which is called for under CT General Statute Sec 14-96a3), this practice also needs to be done when snow is falling:

“Every vehicle upon a highway within this state shall display such lighted lamps and illuminating devices as may be required … at any time during periods of precipitation, including, but not limited to, periods of snow, rain or fog.”

Failure to do so, according to the state books, is an infraction.

Play it safe out there. Let the town crew members do their job, just once when possible. Do not create additional work for them, or create hazards for fellow drivers — or the emergency vehicles that may need to respond to a home in the middle of a storm.

Winter can be a time of great fun, natural beauty, and safe driving.