The first day of winter doesn’t occur in the Northern Hemisphere until December 21st, but good luck telling mother nature that as a number of places have already seen snowfall.
One of those places was Kitsap County in Washington, which appears to have received a couple of inches of snow recently. While that isn’t unusual, snow has a tendency to bring out the worst in drivers.
Washington State Patrol Public Information Officer Katherine Weatherwax recently highlighted this fact as she posted an image of a car, which was traveling on SR 16 with a windshield that was almost completely covered by snow. As Weatherwax explained, someone called in the vehicle for “driving erratically,” which isn’t too surprising considering the driver could barely see anything.
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#KitsapCounty: A trooper stopped this driver on SR 16 after the vehicle was observed to be completely covered in snow. The driver received a $553 ticket for negligent driving in the 2nd degree.
Please take the time to remove all snow from your vehicle before you leave the house. pic.twitter.com/pRHAbdxc8p
— Trooper Katherine Weatherwax (@wspd8pio) December 4, 2022
When a trooper pulled the vehicle over, their excuse was the “windshield wipers weren’t working.” That obviously didn’t fly as the problem could have easily been solved by a snow brush or their bare hand.
Both of those options would have been far cheaper than the $553 (£453 / €527) ticket for negligent driving in the 2nd degree. That’s admittedly steep, but the high price tag should help to discourage lazy and dangerous behavior.
Weatherwax used the post to remind drivers to “take the time to remove all snow from your vehicle before you leave the house.” That’s common sense, but it’s unfortunately not common enough.
To give this more context the vehicle was called in as driving erratically prior to the stop. The vehicle drove 5 additional miles prior to being stopped by a trooper. The driver stated their windshield wipers weren’t working.
— Trooper Katherine Weatherwax (@wspd8pio) December 5, 2022