Snow Way! Road District Once Again Cautions Drivers

by Nancy Hogland

 

 

It was Jeremy Duncan’s first night behind the wheel of the massive plow. Snow was dumping from the sky faster than the crews could remove it but Duncan was determined to keep his section of Horseshoe Bend cleared.

While a thick cloud of snow swirled around him, he diligently kept his eyes focused on the road ahead, straining to spot anything that may be in his path. Then suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, Duncan saw him – an elderly man shoveling his driveway - in the middle of the night! Duncan eased off the gas pedal and pulled back on the lever to change the direction of the blade– but it was too little, too late. He left behind a mound of snow at the edge of the newly cleared driveway.

“After I passed by, I looked in my mirror and saw the man waving at me so I stopped. This was my first time doing this and I didn’t know what to expect,” Duncan explained, adding that while the incident occurred years ago, he remembered it as if it were yesterday. “The next thing I know, the guy was up in the cab with me, cussing me out like a dog! He yelled and waved his finger in my face and called me every name he could think of for several minutes before finally getting out.”

The 11-member crew of the Horseshoe Bend Special Road District nodded in agreement as Duncan spoke. They all had experienced similar problems. And although the area is nearing the end of the snow season, because March snow is common, road district officials hoped they could get their message out before a serious incident occurred.

“It’s a situation where we’re darned if we do, darned if we don’t,” Tim Borrett quipped. “Everyone wants us to go slow but they all want us to hurry up and get to their streets! Everyone wants their streets clear but they don’t want us to pile that snow in front of their place. There’s no way to make everybody happy in this job!”

Ralph Briese remembered a day he made one man particularly unhappy.

“I was driving slow and I was watching because I was approaching a business entrance. All of a sudden, just as I passed by, this guy stepped out from around the corner of the building and wham – he was covered from head to foot! And it was the worst kind of snow – wet and slushy,” Briese said, adding that while the businessman wasn’t exactly angry when Briese went back to apologize, it was clear that he wasn’t too happy about being turned into a “snowman.”

Mark Dabbs recalled the night he “took out Frosty.”

“It was very dark, it was snowing hard and I could barely see. I was driving along and all of a sudden I saw a hat and coat flying through the air,” he said, adding that after pulling to a stop, jumping out of his truck and running back to the scene of the “accident,” he found that he had plowed down a snowman built in the middle of the street. “It’s funny now but at the time, it nearly scared me to death and could have caused a problem if I had seen it in time to swerve and avoid ‘him!’”

Others talked about times they had been shaken after nearly running over children sledding and playing at the road’s edge and after near misses with ATVs jumping mounds of snow left during previous plowings and dogs and their owners who didn’t look before running into the street.

“Our trucks are big and heavy but they slide on ice and snow, just like everyone else’s vehicles. People need to understand we can’t always stop fast,” said Kevin Luttrell, acting superintendent for the district. “They also need to realize that visibility is not good, particularly at night, when we’re plowing.”

He also said although the curve of the blade prevents much of the snow from flying back up on to the windshield, when the wind is blowing, and when it’s snowing hard drivers can have a very difficult time seeing more than a few feet past the nose of the trucks.

That’s what Ryan Cochran planned to explain to the woman who had nearly been buried as she stood, hidden from view in front of her vehicle, waiting for the plow to pass. He never got the chance because before he could turn around and head back, she was gone.

“Turning around” is also a sore subject with most of these drivers. Many have wished for a place to do just that but instead have been forced to back up, sometimes for nearly half a mile, because they couldn’t squeeze through the space left by thoughtless residents. T. J. Moore said one night he even came across a vehicle parked in the middle of the road, emergency lights flashing.  The rest all related tales of “dodge-‘em-style” driving - weaving between parked vehicles while maneuvering the steep and sometimes narrow roads on the Bend.

They all had suggestions that would make their jobs easier and keep residents safer:

1. When possible, don’t drive until roads are cleared.

2. Park vehicles off the road as far as possible to leave room for plows and avoid “sand-blasting” by salt-sand spreaders.

3. Since the snow-removal mixture has the same effect on vehicles that follow plows too closely, drivers need to stay back at least 50 feet.

4. Try not to park in blind-spots, on curves or steep hills.

5. Talk to other residents about choosing one side of the street to park on.

6. Warn children to stay far away from the road’s edge until the snow has stopped and the streets are clear.

7. Those who insist on exercising in snowy weather need to walk facing traffic and carry or wear reflective gear or flashlights.

7. When weather warms, re-examine placement of mailboxes and trash receptacles. Many illegally located at the road’s edge on easement have been destroyed by plows this year.