Topic: Steering You Right: Incoming

[Autos_Editor]

If a piece of ice flies off your car and damages another car, can you be held legally responsible?

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[dragonfly]

 Great topic...Before I retired, I had a 100 mile commute from here in upstate NY to Brooklyn, NY several times a week...During winter months I would come across these 53 foot monsters with huge floes of ice sliding off their rooves into oncoming traffic, on the NY State Thruway and other major highways...I had to dodge them quite a few times...The best defense against this is to back off, but, by the time you realize the danger, it may be too late... As you state, this is against the law, and rightly so..although I have never seen it enforced.. It's little different from a flat bed having pieces of cargo flying off due to negligent tie-down...Thanks for the memories...Jack

[nlm]

"....I too had to zig and zag to avoid the incoming snow missiles, though a few of the smaller ones did hit the roof of my car."

"Fortunately there wasn’t any damage to my vehicle but I did notice a couple of cars that were dented...."

I doubt very much you were avoiding snow missiles AND noticing dents from the same snow missiles on a couple of cars at highway speeds. Point taken about the consequences of drivers not cleaning their vehicles completely of snow and ice but IMO the embelishment is not required.

[miatii]

"Flying ice from truck severely injures motorist"

Taken from chicagobreakingnews - January 6, 2010

When Peter Morano recalls the terrifying car accident, he refers to it as the "white bomb."

On Monday morning, Morano was driving his car east on Butterfield Road in Aurora when his windshield was struck by an explosion of snow and ice. As a westbound semitrailer drove under an overpass, a large block of ice flew off the truck top and torpedoed into Morano's windshield.

"The sheet of ice hit directly on the windshield, broke the windshield and sprayed the glass into my face," said Morano, 41, now recovering in his Aurora home.

"There was blood everywhere, pouring from my head, nose and my eye. I was scared that I was losing so much blood that I was going to die."

Morano, who was headed to the Warrenville day care center that his wife owns, immediately slammed onto the brakes. He initially feared that he was trapped because a large piece of glass had landed on his lap and was pressed against his face.

[kirm]

"I saw metre long pieces of snow and ice fly off the top of trucks and slam down on the road and the unfortunate cars behind them. "

As a guy who used to drive these type of trucks, what are you supposed to do? Seriously? How in the Hades am I supposed to climb onto a trailer that's 20 feet high and has no form of access (ladder) to brush it off? Never mind that OH&S says I have to be roped off and have safety railings at those heights. After all, it's slippery up there and I don't want to fall off.  I'm guessing that the risk to the operator to do this is much higher than the risk to the public from falling snow so it's not enforced.

This is an article I'd expect from a lawyer that's worked in an office all his life. Why don't you give us a practical way to clean the snow off? Do something to force trucking companies to come up with a safe solution.

I understand peoples angst over this but what do you suggest?

[kenm]

As a guy who used to drive these type of trucks, what are you supposed to do? Seriously? How in the Hades am I supposed to climb onto a trailer that's 20 feet high and has no form of access (ladder) to brush it off?

If they were 20 ft. high, you weren't driving them very far............must have been 6 and 1/2  feet of snow and ice on top. 

[Sir Osis of Liver]

You mean like this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?hl=en&v=wOt55tbejng&gl=US

[nlm]

....As a guy who used to drive these type of trucks, what are you supposed to do? ....I'm guessing that the risk to the operator to do this is much higher than the risk to the public from falling snow so it's not enforced.....I understand peoples angst over this but what do you suggest?

I think the article and another post and your post demonstrate there are dangerous risks to both the operator to clean the snow and ice off and the public when snow and ice is not cleaned off. Really the trucking industry should determine themselves how they can tackle this problem. You just indicated some barriers to physcially cleaning the snow off like most do with their vehicles. And then you ask a desk jockey to come up with a viable solution for you?  You know best yourself what can and cannot be done. The article poses the consequences of inaction. Do something about it.

[HeliDriver]

They make 16'-long rakes to rake the snow off the roof of your house: www.roofrake.com

Although, I suppose it might take a bit of modifying to get it to work for the flat roof of a semi-trailer.