MADISON, Wis. — A forecasted dangerous weather system prompted Jerry Mandli, Dane County highway department's road commissioner, to issue an important reminder: Motorists should stay at least 300 feet behind snow plows at all times. 

What You Need To Know

  • Dane County Highway Department averages a dozen snow plow accidents each year

  • Motorists should stay 300 ft. back at all times from plows

  • Sand and salt mixture being made for residential road treatment in Madison

  • Crews in Dane County and Madison expected to work long shifts.

Mandli said his department sees dozens of plow crashes every winter. 

Recently, he said a car bent a plow's hydraulic salt spinner. The plow got repaired, but the wrecked car was taken away on a flatbed tow truck. 

"Physics doesn’t get cheated in those situations," Mandli said about why the plow always win.  

But crashes still do damage — not only to vehicles, but also to the plow drivers.

"[Snow plow drivers] are inside the cab; it shakes them, you know?" Mandli said. "It's almost like a football defensive back if they get burned for a touchdown. They still gotta go back out on the road, but it's also unnerving to see a car coming at you or bouncing off you. Really, they take great pride in making sure that the road is safe for people. So I just asked please don't take any more unnecessary risks than you have to." 

Next year, new measures will be in place to keep plow drivers safe in Dane County, so they can keep residents safe, too.

All 60 plows will start recording what's going on around them.

"And our plan, in this year’s budget, is to install dash cams and reverse cams on our trucks that’ll help us with their accidents to kind of determine what happened along the way," Mandli said.

Madison and Dane County crews planned to work long 14 hour round-the-clock shifts as the most recent winter storm sets in this week.

"It's a tricky storm. Sometimes just having straight snow makes it a lot easier, these ice and the winds will make this one even trickier," Mandli  said.

He said he's hoping people will take his plea to not crowd plows seriously. 

Bryan Johnson, a spokesman for Madison Streets Division, echoed those pleas. 

"You just need to be slow, patient, safe, if you have to be out there in this," Johnson said as crews brought up dump trucks full of supplies to make a salt and sand concoction.

That salt and sand is being transformed into residential road treatments for Madison, Wis.

"It is a very big help in most residential areas that don't get that salt treatment.  But still, this is the best we can do in these residential areas as putting this bit of sand down for that grip on top of that. It doesn't fix it though. It's still going to be slippery, especially when it's actively coming down," Johnson said.

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