Indiana, PA – Ahead of predicted winter weather over the next week, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) District 10 which covers Armstrong, Butler, Clarion, Indiana, and Jefferson counties is reminding motorists of safe winter driving practices.
“We remind all drivers to be cautions and avoid or postpone travel, if necessary,” said PennDOT Community Relations Coordinator Tina Gibbs. “We will be working to keep the roadways passable and safe, please help us to keep the roadways safe by using good winter driving practices so everyone can get to where they need to safely.”
PennDOT crews will be actively pre-treating roadways where necessary ahead of the storm to help prevent ice from forming a bond with the pavement during the early stages of a storm. However, salt does not resolve all risks, and drivers may encounter icy spots on the roadway. With freezing temperatures, roads that look wet may actually be icy, and extra caution is needed when approaching bridges and highway ramps where ice can form.
While avoiding or delaying unnecessary travel during winter storms is the safest choice, PennDOT offers this advice if motorists must travel:
1. Turn on your low beams, even during the daytime to make your vehicle more visible to other motorists.
2. Turn off the cruise control on snow covered, wet, or icy roads. Cruise control provides constant power to your wheels. In a situation where your wheels are spinning on wet, icy, or snow-covered roadways, you need to reduce power to regain control.
3. If the road looks wet but there is no splash coming from the car’s tires ahead of you, it may be ice.
4. On packed snow, decrease your speed by half. On ice, slow your vehicle to a crawl. In both scenarios, motorists should leave more space than normal between you and the vehicle ahead.
5. Clear your vehicle of snow and ice before starting to drive including the windows, hood, trunk, roof, headlights, taillights, and signals.
6. Always wear your seatbelt.
7. Stock your vehicles with a windshield brush/scraper, food, water, warm clothes, blankets, cell phone charger, a small snow shovel, and any specific needs such as baby supplies, medication, and pet supplies.
8. If you do have to travel, be patient with other motorists and the snowplows. If snow is falling at one inch per hour and a plow route takes four hours to complete, there will be four new inches of snow on the roadway at the starting point once the plow begins their next pass on that route. Motorists should always allow plenty of space when driving near plow trucks. Also, for their own safety and the safety of plow operators, motorists should never attempt to pass a truck while it is plowing or spreading winter materials.
9. Have an emergency kit handy. Here are some suggestions of what you could include in your emergency kit.
10. “Know Before You Go” by checking major roadway conditions at www.511PA.com. While PennDOT recommends not traveling during winter storms, motorists can check conditions on more than 40,000 roadway miles, including color-coded winter conditions on 2,900 miles, by visiting www.511PA.com. 511PA, which is free and available 24 hours a day, provides traffic delay warnings, weather forecasts, traffic speed information and access to more than 1,200 traffic cameras. Users can also find plow truck locations and details of when state-maintained roadways were last plowed. 511PA is also available through a smartphone application for iPhone and Android devices, by calling 5-1-1, or by following regional X alerts.
While PennDOT recommends not traveling during winter storms, motorists can check conditions on more than 40,000 roadway miles, including color-coded winter conditions on 2,900 miles, by visiting www.511PA.com. 511PA, which is free and available 24 hours a day, provides traffic delay warnings, weather forecasts, traffic speed information and access to more than 1,200 traffic cameras.
Motorists can check conditions on more than 40,000 roadway miles, including color-coded winter conditions on 2,900 miles, by visiting www.511PA.com. 511PA, which is free and available 24 hours a day, provides traffic delay warnings, weather forecasts, traffic speed information, and access to more than 1,200 traffic cameras. 511PA is also available through a free smartphone application for iPhone and Android devices, by calling 5-1-1, or by following local alerts on X.
Subscribe to PennDOT news in in Armstrong, Butler, Clarion, Indiana, and Jefferson counties at www.penndot.pa.gov/District10.
Find PennDOT news on X, Facebook, and Instagram.
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MEDIA CONTACT: Tina Gibbs at 724-357-2829 or chgibbs@pa.gov.