Yes, this is a scenario that happens all too often in the winter. You could be endangering other drivers because you didn’t want to clean your car off. What’s worse is that you could be facing a fine in the state of New Jersey.
According to the Division of Highway Traffic Safety, drivers who have excess snow on their vehicle can face fines ranging from $25 to $75 for each offense. If that snow or ice was to fly off your car and injure another driver or cause property damage, the fines could significantly rise; possibly to as much as $1,000.
When you forget to clean your car off, you aren’t only impacting yourself with an imposed fine, the person(s) you injured, or the property you damaged. You are impacting all the motorists who are traveling with traffic delays and the possible accidents and injuries that arise from those circumstances.
In fact, there was a reported incident when a police officer gave a driver a ticket a day after an accumulating snowfall because the driver had not cleaned their car off. But, that’s not even what makes this case odd. The New Jersey driver was in Philadelphia, PA. The officer recorded the license plate and delivered a ticket to the driver the following day.
Don’t end up like this driver and just clean off your car! But in any case, here are some other tips to keep in mind while you are driving this winter:
- Drive slowly
- Keep your headlights on
- Increase your braking distance
- Don’t accelerate or break into a skid (steer into the direction of the skid)
Contact Us Today
If you are the victim of another driver’s laziness from not cleaning their car off, know that you have someone on your side. The Law Offices of Anthony Carbone has three decades of experience helping people who have suffered from a winter-related car accident and the injuries that occurred as a result. Contact us today for a free consultation.