WYDOT Snowplow Drivers Hope Recent Trend Of Hit Plows Doesn’t Continue

Wyoming Department of Transportation snowplow drivers are hoping that what happened during the Thanksgiving holiday time period, doesn’t happen again around the Christmas and New Years Holiday time frame.

During the Thanksgiving weekend, a snowstorm hit portions of Wyoming, and three snow plows were hit in the southeast part of the state.

Of those three, two of them had to be taken out of service and there is some snow in forecast for this weekend.

Although snowplows travel slower than most traffic on the highways, the speed of the snowplow is dependent on what it’s doing.

Ken Sharp is a Heavy Equipment Operator with WYDOT.

He says slow speeds are necessary when a plow is dropping snowmelt.

“We have to go slow to do that, so it don’t bounce off the road. We want it to stay on the road so we typically go around 30 miles an hour, sometimes slower if we need to.”

Sharp adds if you have to pass a snowplow, make sure there’s plenty of room to pass and be ready for road conditions to be worse in front of the plow.

For those who don’t like to pass, yet are impatient with the snowplow driver, the plow will eventually get out of the way.

“If you just hang out for awhile, our normal turnarounds are 10 to 15 miles apart, where we turn around, so you’ll have the time to get around then.”

Before the 2019-2020 winter season, an average of about 8 snow plows were hit by motorists per season.

In the last 4 winter seasons, not counting the current season, that average has nearly tripled to about 23 snowplows being hit per season.