Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
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Shelley Osterloh ReportingMost people are pretty good about clearing their car windows after a big snow storm, but even on mornings like this, when there is no fresh snow, you may still need to get out the scraper. Frosty windows can obscure your vision and get you a ticket and a fine.
Salt Lake City Police officer Law Jones says clearing your windows should be common sense.
Officer Law Jones, Salt Lake City Police: "Is it really safe for me to drive my car down the road when I can't see?"
Maybe not, but a lot of us do it. It's against the law to have anything on the windows - front or back- that obstructs your vision, and it could get you a ticket.
It's not just frost and snow, either. The windows on one car we saw were so dirty with road grit the driver, a newspaper delivery man, couldn't see well.
Officer:" The other side too see how dirty that is?" Man: "Yeah."
Though it may only take a couple of minutes to clean or clear the frost off your windows, too many of us just don't take the time, and we saw it again and again -- seven cars in just over an hour.
Officer: "Is there any particular reason you didn't want to scrape your windows?" A: "Well just in a hurry, just in a hurry." Officer: "You know if you just take another couple of minutes, look at that look at the difference on just that half of the window."
Reaction from drivers was mixed.
Driver: "By the time I go around the block, it's all cleared off. I don't see what the big deal is."
If you get a ticket, the fine can range from 50 to 750 dollars. And if you are pulled over, that time you thought you saved could be spent talking to a police officer.
Bottom line here, taking a few minutes to scrape off your windows and keep them clear will save you time and perhaps money and keep you safer out on the roads.
Police say another potentially dangerous problem occurs when drivers don't clean all the snow off their vehicles. As they are driving it blows off and on to other cars, obstructing the vision of other drivers on the road.
