Open letter to a—holes who don’t clear the snow from their cars

I'll start the letter by saying: I have been that a—hole. My SUV is a little taller than I am so it's hard to get all the snow off all of the time.

I use a push broom when there is any significant snow on the roof of my car, but I don't always get all of it. All of us may have had that occasion when you heard something slide off of our roof and then noticed a hunk of frozen snow hit the surface of the road behind us.

It happened to me the other day when I thought I had gotten most of the snow off the previous morning.

While driving up and down Route 295 the last few days I've noticed a fair number of cars and trucks with sheets of ice and snow flipping up into the air and landing on the road behind them.

Luckily no accidents resulted but there have been a few over the years, including a tragic fatality in 1996 when a man named Michail Eastman was killed on Route 17 in Paramus. 

He was a 45-year-old husband and father who was struck by a sheet of ice that flew off of a truck while he was driving home.

His widow Cathy keeps urging police chiefs to step up enforcement of a law now on the books that fines drivers for not clearing snow and ice from their vehicles.

A fine is a minor expense and inconvenience but the loss of a loved one or serious injury lasts forever. It happens just about every year and it can easily be avoided.

We're all in a hurry and nobody likes spending too much time in the cold clearing the snow off their car, but it's something we have to make sure we take the time to do.

Even if the chunk of ice and snow that flies off your car isn't enough to crash through a windshield and kill someone, it's enough to cause a serious accident. We've had two snow events this week and since it's January in New Jersey, there are probably a few more to come.

Don't only get the snow off your windshield and back window but do whatever you can to get it off your roof as well. It's worth the time and effort not to harm your fellow New Jersey drivers.

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Dennis Malloy only.

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