Hazardous Icy Roads Call for Action.

On December 27, 2010, I was driving my 9-year-old daughter and her friend back from their swimming class when my car slid on an icy road in my own neighborhood. Since the speed of my car was only about 5 mile/hour and no pedestrian or car was in front of it, thanks to God, the only victim was a stop sign.

I immediately called the police to report the icy road that was not cleared even once after the last snow 10 days ago. To my surprise, I was told that I could be given a ticket for having my car out of control and that I would be charged for causing damage to the city’s property.  “And who would pay for my car’s damage?” I asked the officer.  “You or your insurance,” he replied.  “But I already paid the city for road cleaning in the first place,” I tried to make sense out of it. The officer agreed that the city did not clean the road on time, but at the same time, he refused to write a report against the city.  According to him, there is no such law.  Really, there is no such law. But why not, I wondered.

As a new wave of winter storms is hitting various states of North America, road safety will become a major issue in many areas for the coming days and weeks.  Although cities do clean major highways and main streets right away, the majority of small streets and cul-de- sacs remain icy for days and weeks waiting for God to take direct action over the ice.  These hazardous streets pose a serious threat to properties and lives. Serious actions need to be taken by cities and citizens to avoid any damage, injury or death.

Most cities hold drivers responsible for these accidents and charge them for the damages too. This is an unacceptable situation. Taxpayers pay taxes to have their roads cleaned in a timely manner. It’s a city’s job to provide the service as planned and advertised. In the absence of such services, the city must take responsibility of these damages, deaths and injuries and must compensate the affected parties.

In my case, I have not yet been charged by the city, so far, for the damage to the stop sign; but neither have I been paid for the damage to my car. But to me, the major question is bigger than this: what if it was a person or someone else’s car in the place of that stop sign? What if I or the girls were injured seriously due to that slide?

Who would be responsible? The city? The residents of that street? Or myself?

All of us.

Yes, all of us would be responsible: The city for not providing a service in time; the residents for not complaining in the absence of the service; and I for not drawing people’s attention to the issue prior to the accident. 

Each city plans for snow removal in advance. My city, for example, has divided its roads and streets into four levels. All cul-de-sac and dead end streets fall into priority level four. According to the city’s website, “the City of Hilliard Operations Division operates under a curb-to-curb snow removal policy.” The plan posted on the website mentions that the expected cleanup time for ALL streets, including cul-de-sacs, after an accumulation of over 10 inches snow and a storm for a duration of 6-10 hours would be 25-35 hours after the storm.

However, this has not been the case in the past and in this winter. As of December 27, the day of accident, the total snow of the season was 7.0.” The last snow day was December 18 with 0.9” accumulation. The second last snow day was December 14 with 2.9” accumulation. It had been 13 days and Hilliard’s many fourth priority streets were not cleaned (see the photographs taken on Dec. 27). This included Weston Trail, Silverton Farms, Hoffmann Farms and many other sub-divisions. Some of these neighborhoods are very well-off, and their residents are highly educated folks who make a lot and pay taxes in thousands.

When I talked to my friends who live on and deal with these icy roads on daily basis, they blamed the home-owners’ associations for the problem. None of them was actually aware of the fact that their association is not responsible of cleaning any road in anyway and that they need to call the city when the job is not done within the expected time frame. The cost of this ignorance is not only inconvenience, but they also pay for minor to major damages to each other’s and to the city’s properties sometimes. The potential threat of injury or death is on top of that.

According to the Hilliard Police Department’s clerk, Esther Sauls, the city does not keep any record of the accidents and the dollars cost of the damages caused by icy roads. Hence the exact numbers cannot be presented at this point. But to me, even one death or a threat of death should be enough to take precautions.

In a nutshell, hazardous icy roads call for actions. Keep an eye on the roads in your neighborhoods. Call your cities immediately, if the snow or ice has not been removed within the planned time.  Take it to your city councils and hold your mayors responsible in case of accidental damages, injuries or deaths.  It may sound like a lot of work, but this is the price of safe, secured and well maintained neighborhoods that all civilized people pay for whenever needed.

I and my friend resident of that street paid this price after the accident and the good news is that the city is now little bit more efficient in cleaning our subdivision. Since this recent storm started two days ago, they have already cleared the road of accident twice.  That’s what we need. That’s what we deserve.That's what we should get through civic engagement.