In high school, I was lazy and—like the driver above—regularly drove around during the winter with only a fraction of my windshield cleared of snow and ice. This is dumb. Don’t do this. Clear everything off.
Police in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, got right to the point on Twitter last week to articulate this very point. An officer posted a photo of a poorly-scraped windshield to the police department’s Twitter page with a simple caption: “NO.” No, like, don’t drive? No, no as in NO. Scrape off everything.
We’ve covered this a number of times in the past, but it’s worth reminding to every last one of you who feel compelled to shove off for a drive with only a small circle of your windshield cleared: Don’t do it.
What can you do instead? Instead of lazily scraping away enough snow and ice so you can only see what’s directly in front of you, scrape off everything. Yes, everything.
Not compelled yet? If you live in a few particular states, it’s not just in your interest for safety reasons—it might cost you a pretty penny, too. USA Today covered some of these a few years back:
• In New Jersey, drivers can be fined $25-$75 for failing to remove accumulated ice and $200-$1,000 if the ice flies off and causes injury or property damage.
• In Pennsylvania, drivers can be fined $200-$1,000 if snow or ice flies from their vehicle and strikes another vehicle or pedestrian, causing death or serious bodily injury.
• Washington allows police to stop drivers for traveling with accumulated ice on their vehicles, but the offense does not carry a fine.
Just clear it all away.