New for 2014: Ice Missile Law For Connecticut Drivers
Scotty Reiss
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Ice Truck Law
You’ve seen this: You’re traveling behind a truck at high speed on the highway when suddenly a huge shelf of ice and snow flies off the truck’s roof and narrowly misses your car (or, maybe it doesn’t).
This weekend’s snowfall will be the first test of Connecticut’s new Ice Missile law, a law that penalizes drivers—especially of commercial trucks— for not scraping the ice and snow from the tops of their vehicles before driving on public roads. Fines range from $75 for private cars to up to $1,000 for commercial trucks.
The law, which as been on the table for several years, picked up support after a state legislator’s wife was driving on the highway and was hit by a shelf of ice and snow that catapulted from the roof of a truck in front of her. It shattered her windshield.
New Jersey, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania have Ice Missile laws, but most states will ticket drivers for operating an unsafe vehicle if they are seen with snow and ice piled on the roof of the car.
The new law poses an issue for drivers of large vehicles, such as RVs, and tractor-trailer drivers: How to remove the snow from the roof? A new product called the Rowe Roof Rake invented by Wisconsin trucker Richard Rowe, should help. The Rake is easily assembled and lets drivers easily sweep ice and snow from tall truck rooftops.