Legality of Snow

Seems that snow is a major topic in Washington these days despite the fact that we haven't had any appreciable snow in the region since last winter. Sure we've had a couple of dustings and a day of inconvenience due to ice but nothing more than that. Washington came under a bit of good-natured ribbing by the President himself when he made light of the fact that the city was panicking over a little bit of snow and ice. People took offense at that and made a big fuss about it but I can only imagine what will happen now that DC has made a ruling and passed a law which states that you can be pulled over if you fail to clean the snow off your vehicle before hitting the road.

Now having never parked my car in a garage (other than at work) I can't tell you the number of times I've woken up and gotten ready for work only to end up having to dig my car out of the snow and clean it off. Sure I could do the lazy thing as the person in photo for this blog and leave the rest of the snow to blow off as I drive but is that the safe thing to do? Probably not; in fact I know it isn't. According to the new law which will take effect in DC in the next 9 days, police will have permission to pull over and ticket vehicles which fail to have had all snow removed so as not to pose a danger to other cars and drivers. Already the backlash has begun with people complaining about how this rule is unfair and how childish it is. Perhaps; but the people complaining most of the time are the people who would be targeted by these rules in the first place.

If you check out the comments or complaints that people are making online or in the news lately in regards to this law you would think that people are being made to do something above and beyond the realm of their capabilities. You think it's too much to ask to clean your car off? Well how about next time I toss out chunks and slabs of ice out of the back of my car at your windshield at 60 miles per hour on wet and snow covered roads. I was driving down the highway last week behind several vehicles that had basically cleared off a small patch of window in front of the driver which would have made the driver's window on a tank look larger. These cars were driving around looking more like mobile igloos than cars and as they picked up speed, slabs the size of average textbooks and opened newspapers came flying off. I'm sure the drivers had no clue but were pleased to reach their destinations and see that there was no longer any snow on their car.

You can say that it's a petty or foolish way in which the city could take something as subjective as snow on a car and turn it into a cash cow but I don't think people will realize the value of enforcing this rule until we hear about how a chunk of ice flew off a car, hit another behind it and then caused an accident which took the life of the driver and child in the backseat. Then you'll see how quickly people change their tune and begin talking about how 'people need to be made to clean their cars'. As it is we don't get much snow around here anymore so you're talking about spending an extra fifteen minutes cleaning off your car on a snowy morning that has occured a total of five times out of 365 days in a year. Is that too much to ask for?