That ice appears to suddenly lift off like a feather, but it can be like a brick crashing into your windshield.
On Monday, a state trooper from the Ohio State Highway Patrol’s Lebanon post sustained damage to his cruiser’s overhead light bar on Ohio 129. The trooper was behind an SUV that had snow and ice on the roof.
The Kleinow family of Warren County was on I-71 Saturday when ice from an adjacent car broke apart and flew off, with one chunk partially caving in the passenger side of their windshield.
Lt. Matt Schmenk, Lebanon post commander, said since the ice and snow event last week, Lebanon troopers have handled between 20 and 40 calls of vehicles being damaged from snow and ice flying from another vehicle. He said as the temperatures warmed up, it loosened the ice packed on top of vehicles and semis.
Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky do not have a specific law requiring snow and ice to be removed from the top of vehicles.
But if a driver does not clear the snow and ice completely from their vehicle and it causes damage to another motorist’s vehicle, or injury or death to a person, Schmenk said they could technically be cited for operating an unsafe vehicle.
“We choose to educate rather than enforce, and if someone is hurt, the other driver will be held accountable,” Schmenk said. “It’s the responsibility of the driver to clear ice and snow from their vehicles.”
Schmenk said these property damage incidents are hard to quantify, as the highway patrol does not categorize those incidents directly to snow and ice. In addition, not every crash gets reported, as some drivers settle the matter with the offending driver, he said.
“A lot of people need to be conscious of this when following behind or driving in adjacent lanes, particularly around semis,” Schmenk said.
He said on Monday he was driving near a semi that appeared to have a foot and a half of snow on top of the trailer. Schmenk said the Hamilton post investigated a crash where a sheet of snow and ice crushed the roof of a vehicle.
A check of other patrol posts in the metro Dayton area indicated the number of incidents ranging from two to more than a dozen. Other patrol posts said the county sheriff’s offices in the Dayton region have also investigated these types of damages.
Warren County residents Joey Kleinow, his wife Bella, and their children were on I-71 south of Lebanon heading to their son’s basketball game in Mason on Saturday. As they neared the Mason exit, Joey Kleinow said another car passed them, and most of the ice and snow on that vehicle’s roof went up in the air, then broke apart, with a chunk hitting the passenger side of his windshield in front of his wife.
Joey Kleinow said the ice chunk caved in that side of the windshield, sending glass fragments on to his wife, who suffered some scratches. Had the ice chunk broken through the glass, Kleinow said it could have seriously injured or killed his wife.
“It was pretty scary,” he said.
After the impact, Kleinow said he sped up and started honking his horn to get that driver’s attention and pointed to the damage that was caused. Both drivers pulled off the highway, exchanged information and did not involve law enforcement.
“From the look of his facial expressions, he seemed pretty shocked. You could tell he was concerned,” Kleinow said. Kleinow said the other driver contacted his insurance company and the vehicle is being repaired.
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