Icy vehicle roof tops dangerous and illegal in Pennsylvania

DINGMAN - “I was just heading for the store when this giant sheet of frozen snow flew off a truck and smashed my windshield,” said Cliff Anderson. Anderson was out early Saturday morning heading east on Log Tavern Road near Pocono Mountain Water Forest. On the other side of the road, going in the opposite direction, was a large white box truck. As the truck began to make a slight right turn to follow the curvature of the road a sheet of frozen snow slid to the left off the roof and slammed against the windshield of Anderson’s car. The truck kept on going, as the driver was not aware that anything even happened. The impact was so great that Anderson was immediately covered with the shattered glass from the windshield. Over half the windshield was suddenly impossible to see through and Anderson bounced off the curb on the passenger side of his car as he tried to maintain control with almost no visibility. “My head was covered with shards of glass and there was even broken glass in the cuffs of my pants. I was lucky to have not been injured and had I been going faster I might have really crashed up my car,” he said, with a sigh of relief. None of the drivers of the vehicles behind him or any of those behind the truck even gave the situation a second glance. “If I didn’t have glasses on I might have been blinded,” remarked Anderson. He went on to say, “I stopped my car as soon as I could because I couldn’t see through the windshield. I got all the glass off me and the seat and then headed back home. I had to drive leaned all the way over to the right as this was the only side of the windshield I could see out of.” The windshield, fortunately, was the only part of the car that was damaged. He called his auto insurance agent, and a Port Jervis glass installer is going to do the repair at his home. “The State Police should pay more attention to trucks that are violating the law by driving around with dangerous amounts of fallen snow on their roofs,” said Anderson. Police advise motorists to pay attention to trucks they are driving behind that are laden with snow on their roof and maintain a safe following distance. State Trooper Evan Lonergan said snow and ice sliding from vehicle and causing injury to another person is illegal and carries fines of $200 to $1,000. However, Lonergan said the law does not cover property damage. Anderson said he’ll be more attentive to dangerous winter driving conditions. “I thought I only had to be cautious of snow on the ground. I never thought about flying sheets of frozen snow.”