It’s that time of year again, when the snow starts falling, and we have to learn once again how to share the road with snowplows.

Snowplow drivers have a thankless job. They work long hours during the most horrible weather imaginable, just to keep the roads as safe as possible. But all motorists have a role in keeping roads safe, as well. Here are some tips for driving during the winter, to help snowplow drivers help you:

• Before you head out, check weather conditions, so you know what to expect.  Give yourself extra time to get to your destination.
• Make sure your vehicle’s windows are clear of snow, ice and frost before you head out.
• Make sure your headlights and tail lights are in proper working order.
• If there is ice and snow, take it slow. Most posted speed limit signs are for clear, dry conditions, and may become hazardous when roads are slick. Most winter accidents are caused by driving too fast for conditions.
• Stay well behind working snowplows. Make sure you can see the driver’s mirrors, because that means it’s more likely he can see you.
• If you’re impatient and tempted to pass a snowplow, remember; the road where you are behind the snowplow is probably in better condition than the road in front of it.
• If you decide to pass the snowplow, anyway, be extra careful, because the snowplow can create a cloud of snow that could obscure your vision.
• When driving on plowed snowy roads, try to stay in the wheel ruts made by the cars ahead of you. Often, the grip in the rut is nearly as good as on a road that’s merely wet.
• Avoid black ice by slowing down and steering smoothly. If you hit an ice patch, anyway, stay calm and slow down carefully. Don’t overreact by slamming your brakes or turning the steering wheel too sharply.
• Look both ways when approaching any intersection, even if you have the right of way, just in case other drivers can’t stop.

Remember; during difficult snow and ice conditions, it takes everyone working together to keep everyone safe.

A YouTube video that has gone somewhat viral and has received more than140,000 hits to date has a lot of people shaking their heads. It shows a Gatineau, Quebec bus driver doing paperwork while operating his bus. Several times in the 57-second video, the driver takes his hands completely off the wheel and steers the bus with his knees.

Incredibly, the transit union that represents Gatineau bus drivers is claiming an invasion of the driver’s privacy with the video, and wants to ban passengers from taking video of drivers inside public buses. As union officials see it, drivers don’t need to be stared at or ridiculed every time they do something the public doesn’t understand.

Predictably, the passenger who took the video, Jaime Hill, disagrees with the union’s stance, noting that public transportation is not the same as private transportation, and that there is no expectation of privacy for a driver of a public bus.

According to Gatineau transit officials, the driver in the video has been disciplined, but he will not be fired.

YouTube link:

If you are driving in New Brunswick, be aware that, as of June 6, it is now illegal to do so while talking, texting, or messing with your iPod, so you might want go hands free, or consider letting that call go to voicemail if not.

The new law prohibits the manual operation of use of any portable communications or entertainment devices while driving, and goes so far as to prohibit the manual programming or adjusting of any global positioning system while driving. That means, if your cell phone, GPS or MP3 player isn’t hands-free, you run the risk of a ticket.

And make no mistake; the ticket could cost you dearly. If police stop you, you could see a fine of $172.50 and lose three points from your license. In addition, the Insurance Bureau of Canada has strongly suggested that drivers can also expect to see higher rates for auto insurance.

Police throughout the province began enforcing the new legislation from day one, and they have let it be known that those who choose to disregard the law in its first few weeks do so at their own risk, as they plan no leniency. They note that the new law was passed in December, and the public has been aware that it was coming for months now, so they view that as a sufficient “grace period.”

Among the exemptions included with the new law are voice-operated systems, one-touch devices or built-in screens. Of course, police officers and other emergency personnel will be exempt, and drivers will be permitted to make emergency 911 calls when necessary without incurring a fine. Commercial vehicle drivers will still be allowed to use two-way radios, and ham radio operators can still use them for emergency activities.

Though New Brunswick is one of the last provinces to enact such a ban, lawmakers hope that the new legislation will create a cultural shift towards improved road safety. Lawmakers worry about the number of young people killed on New Brunswick’s highways every year as they play with their hand-held gadgets. Thus far, public feedback has been positive, although RCMP officers expect a bit of a learning curve. They note that the wearing of seatbelts has been required since 1983, but they still catch people driving without them.

According to the Canada Safety Council, drivers who take their eyes off the road to adjust their hand-held device are as much as 23 times more likely to get into an accident.

In a remarkable accident last week, a Montreal driver crashed his car through a temporary fence and plunged 12 metres into an excavation pit at a construction site, and managed to survive the impact. The accident happened at around 11 p.m. the night of July 14, near the intersection of Bleury Street and Rene Levesque Boulevard downtown.

After the accident, firefighters spent an hour trying to rescue the man, using the Jaws of Life to cut off the vehicle roof, then pulling him up on a stretcher to street level and into a waiting ambulance. Witnesses at the scene remarked that it was amazing that the driver survived, given that the construction site featured concrete slabs at the bottom, with dozens of large metal rods sticking straight up.

Investigators are looking into the accident. It appears that the driver was travelling south on Bleury when he lost control of his car and veered off into the construction site. In addition to speaking to the driver, which they will do when he’s healthy enough, they are looking at surveillance tapes, examining the car and, of course, they’re awaiting for the results of blood alcohol tests.

Quebec’s workplace health and safety board closed the worksite overnight, but it was re-opened at 7 a.m., subject to the condition that concrete barriers be placed around the site by end of the next day, not just to protect drivers, but also to protect construction workers on the site from falling in as well.

An elderly driver who killed a flagger three years ago was issued a suspended sentence last week, and the sentence has managed to anger members of the province’s traffic control workforce.

The accident happened in February 2008, as a work crew was clearing ditches. Two flaggers were resetting the work site up after their lunch break. Terry Mitchell was standing at the far end of the curved road, communicating via radio with another flagger, when the driver of the car, 88-year-old Mellie Pool, ran into him. Mitchell was airlifted from the site of the accident, but died later that same day,

Besides being 88 years old, Pool is also legally blind, and his licence hadn’t been renewed since 2001 as a result of that blindness. Pool received the suspended sentence from a judge of the Supreme Court of British Columbia on March 3. In addition, Pool received two years probation, a further 10-year driving ban and was ordered to perform 15 hours of community service.

As one could imagine, a number of road workers and supervisors are quite upset with the judge in this case. A few have suggested that the lightness of the sentence actually served to devalue the flagger’s life. Some have suggested that, at the very least, Pool should be required to wear an electronic device to monitor his driving, or that some other measures be taken to keep him off the road.

Texting while driving is a bad idea when you’re alone in your car. But in an age when everyone seems to have a camera or video camera on their person at all times, you have to wonder about someone who goes even farther.

AToronto bus driver faces disciplinary, up to and including firing, after a passenger took a photo of him texting while operating a bus. The vehicle carried approximately 30 passengers and travelling at approximately 50 kilometres per hour at the time the photo was taken, according to the passenger-photographer.

The Toronto Transit Commission has made it clear that, in addition to being illegal, it considers such an incident as a serious breach of public safety and commission rules, and is taking this ”extremely seriously.”

Texting while driving has been illegal on Ontario roads since October 2009 and violators face fines of up to $500. But beyond that, it violates a TTC policy that was in place long before the Ontario law took effect.

The passenger who took the photo says he doesn’t want the driver to lose his job, but he also doesn’t want people texting while driving, either. He said that several passengers saw the driver texting, but no one else bothered to say anything to the driver.

This isn’t the first time a TTC employee has been caught off-guard by someone with a camera. Last January, someone photographed a fare collector sleeping on the job. Before that, a passenger took video of a driver engaged in a prolonged coffee break while passengers were on the bus, and the bus was left idling.

There has been a rash of accidents involving snowplows in Saskatchewan lately. The latest incident involves a provincial snowplow that was hit  by a semi-trailer on the Trans-Canada Highway on Sunday afternoon, January 16. It was actually the third such incident in less than two weeks.

According to the Highways Ministry, the latest accident occurred during whiteout conditions near Balgonie. The semi swerved and hit the snowplow on the right rear side, causing extensive damage to both vehicles. Neither driver was injured.

That particular crash followed a more serious accident on Highway 40 near Shellbrook on Friday morning, January 14, in which a snowplow operator was plowing in the southbound lanes of the highway when a northbound car crossed into the wrong lane and hit the snowplow head on. The driver of the car in that accident was treated for minor injuries, while two passengers — a woman and a small child — received non-life-threatening injuries.

Another snowplow was hit by a car around noon on Jan. 6. In that incident, the operator had been plowing on Highway 19 near Elbow when he was rear-ended.  According to the Ministry’s report, the driver had entered the whiteout created by the plow before the crash.

Here are some basic safety tips for all drivers when operating near snowplows:

• Stay alert! If you’re on a major road and it’s snowing, there are likely to be plows working.
• Note that snowplows travel slower than posted speeds, and always yield to them.
• Remember that a snowplow weighs far more than a car, and a crash is more likely to do more damage to you and your vehicle than the snowplow and its operator.
• Give snowplow operators plenty of room to do their jobs.
• Never drive into a snow cloud.
• Never use cruise control on wet or icy roads.
• Slow down and be patient. Allow for a safe distance between your vehicle and a snowplow.

Wait until the snowplow pulls over (they do so every 10km) to pass.

Last summer, the Ontario Ministry of Transportation (MTO) began testing a fully mobile work zone barrier system during a concrete repair project on Highway 115, southwest of Peterborough.

The new system is fully mobile, consisting of a wheeled unit, which is pulled by a standard truck tractor. The unit can be deployed relatively quickly and, because of its reversible axles, it can easily be reconfigured for either right or left applications in about half an hour.

These new mobile units, which are bright orange to alert drivers that road work is taking place, reduce the need for road crews to set up a Temporary Concrete Barrier (TCB), which means they can finish road work and reopen a lane in less time.  By adding panels, the size of the work zone can be expanded to as much as 31 metres, and the systems are also customizable, including such options as portable message signs, auxiliary lighting and a privacy barrier. The unit meets U.S. National Cooperative Highway Research Program 350 TL-3 crash test requirements, as well.

The mobile work zone barriers increase the safety of maintenance and construction crews, according to a number of test projects, and past use by others. The state of California has been deploying such mobile barriers since 2004, for example, and they have proven to be very time effective and safe. California refers to its mobile barriers as “Balsi Beams,” because they were developed after worker Mark Balsi was killed by a motorist while picking up trash along the highway. California’s Balsi Beam was among those demonstrated to MTO officials at a conference several years ago, which led to last summer’s trial.

Construction crews have so far found it easy to adapt to the devices, and feel very confident working behind them.  The Highway 115 trial project proved the units to be so effective that the contractor’s schedule was advanced, and work was completed ahead of time, because they were able to eliminate the work necessary in placing and removing the TCB.

Due to the success of the initial mobile barrier trial, MTO expects to expand their use for projects such as pothole filling, pavement testing, crack sealing, bridge and guide rail repairs, and even accident scene investigations.

Photos of the mobile work zone barrier system in action can be found here.

WebSafety, Inc. has announced the release of a mobile application they call CellSafety, which should go a long way toward making the roadways safer for everyone.  You see, this particular application actually disables texting and emailing from a moving vehicle.

The company recently increased the application’s compatibility to more than 60 smart phones in the United States and has now expanded CellSafety so that it works on the Bell Mobility and Telus networks in Canada.

CellSafety uses proprietary technology to detect when a vehicle is moving at speeds of more than 10 mph and then prohibits the driver from sending or reading text and email messages, or even using the phone’s web browser.

Texting and emailing while driving is considered one of the most dangerous distractions facing drivers today, and new laws have been passed all over as a response to this hazard. More than 30 U.S. states and seven Canadian provinces now have laws to prevent distracted driving, and President Obama signed an Executive Order banning federal employees from texting while operating government vehicles. WebSafety developed CellSafety as a solution to the problem.

The CellSafety mobile application is available starting at $9.99 per month, with substantial discounts available for commercial and governmental accounts, and can be purchased by visiting www.mywebsafety.com.

Ontario inspected a bunch of trucks on their busiest highways between 6:00 a.m. on Wednesday, August 18 and 6:00 a.m. on Thursday, August 19, 2010 and, in the process, they caught a lot of potentially dangerous drivers.

Operation Corridor is an annual highway safety initiative that focuses on high police visibility, enforcement and education opportunities on all major provincial highways. It targets aggressive commercial vehicle drivers and/or unsafe commercial vehicles.

The operation is conducted by Ontario Provincial Police, as well as inspectors from the Ministry of Transportation and Ministry of the Environment. During the operation, they stopped and checked 1,431 commercial vehicles and laid 355 commercial motor vehicle-related charges.  In addition, 31 commercial vehicles were taken out of service due to various equipment issues or hours of service violations.

The charges laid during Operation Corridor included 131 charges for speeding; 10 charges for following too closely; 17 charges for not wearing a seatbelt; 43 charges for “other” hazardous moving violations; 82 equipment-related violations; and three charges for being impaired behind the wheel.

During last year’s blitz, they stopped 1,532 vehicles and laid 285 charges.