Clear your vehicle

City plans to fine drivers with snow on roofs

SItLUDURT » Apart from vehicles losing control during and after a snowstorm, one of the secondary hazards of driving after the storm is snow and ice flying from the roofs of cars and trucks. In an effort to reduce that threat, the city is working to make it a municipal violation that is fineable.

“We looked at (creating a new ordinance) last year because it kept getting thrown out by court clerks,” Police Chief Ernest Martineau said Monday.

Martineau said there is a general state statute that allows police officers to cite someone for throwing a “projectile” out of vehicle like a cigarette, bottle or other item, but not one that specifically addresses ice and snow coming off a car or truck, which was causing the issue with clerk of courts.

Given the serious consequences that can happen when a chunk of ice flies off a truck or car and strikes another vehicle, Martineau said the city decided to create its own ordinance.

In the “streets and sidewalks” section of the city code, the city has proposed amending it include vehicles on city streets.

The proposed ordinance reads: “It shall be unlawful to operate a motor vehicle on a public way in the City of Fitchburg while any portion of said motor vehicle carries upon it now or ice in an unsecured manner regardless of whether or not said Unsecured Load of Snow or Ice has actually fallen or dislodged from said vehicle. All operators shall have duty to remove snow and ice from motor vehicles … (and) each instance in which a motor vehicle is observed operating on a public way carrying an Unsecured Load of Snow or Ice … shall be considered a violation.”

Martineau said the fine

proposed for offenders would be $55 per instance.

Martineau wanted the city’s motoring public to know his officers will be working to educate the public about the dangers instead of just writing a citation, at first.

He said when a motor vehicle is stopped with an unsecured load of snow or ice, the officer will educate the driver and then record the incident, with the driver’s name, in the city’s database.

If that driver is stopped again for a similar violation, he said, that driver should expect a citation with the $55 fine.

The city council unanimously passed the first reading of the proposed ordinance on Dec. 1 and will take a second vote on it on Dec. 15, according to a spokesperson in the City Clerk’s Office.

If it passes on Dec. 15, the ordinance will go into effect after it is signed by the mayor, which is usually a few days after it is adopted by the city council.

Martineau said the fine proposed for offenders would be $55 per instance.