Senator Onorato Pushes Bill To Help Ensure Highway Safety

With two months of winter weather still ahead, State Senator George Onorato (D-Queens) is once again pushing his legislation (S.3465) requiring drivers in New York State to clean off their cars and trucks of accumulated snow, sleet and hail before heading out on the road.

"This seems like such a common sense thing to do," said Senator Onorato, "but we’ve all driven behind someone who has snow blowing off their car roof directly into our line of vision or seen people operating a motor vehicle with snow or ice still obscuring their windows. At best, these drivers are a nuisance; at worst, they can cause serious accidents."

On Christmas Day, 2005, the Queens lawmaker noted, a 51-year-old Pennsylvania woman was killed when a large chunk of ice and snow from the roof of a tractor-trailer came flying through the air and crashed through her driver side window. Christine Lambert’s husband and son, who survived the accident, were also in the automobile at the time.

Under current state law, those who pose a hazard to others by not removing snow and ice from their motor vehicles could conceivably be charged with reckless driving, reckless endangerment or other offenses.

"However, law enforcement officials have great discretion in interpreting and enforcing these laws," said Senator Onorato. "If we really want to prevent accidents caused by accumulated snow and ice on motor vehicles, we should state this clearly in our laws, as a number of other states have done."

In the meantime, the Queens lawmaker urged New Yorkers to take that few extra minutes on snowy or ice days to make sure that the conditions of their motor vehicles don’t pose a hazard to them or others when they head out on the road. "Taking that little bit of extra time to brush off the snow or scrape off the ice could be the difference between a safe trip and a terrible tragedy," Senator Onorato said.