(Beaver Dam) The Beaver Police Department is reminding motorists to drive cautiously as winter weather has arrived. Lieutenant Jeremiah Johnson says the main safety tip to remember is to watch your speed.
“If you are doing 25-miles-per-hour…that’s the speed limit in the city of Beaver Dam,” says Johnson. “Those are designed for perfect, ideal, dry road conditions. We have the Department of Transportation that comes in, we have the city council, they all take theses things into consideration for road safety and they figure out what speed limits are put on what roads. But, when you start getting adverse road conditions such as [a] little bit of rain can actually make things a lot slipperier.”
Johnson notes that freezing conditions can make it even harder to stop and encourages drivers to give themselves enough distance between other vehicles.
“That 25-miles-per-hour is safe when its dry and ideal conditions but you can probable bring that down to 15 or even 20-miles-per-hour,” says Johnson. “And don’t follow closely with the cars that are in front of you when you know that the road conditions are a little slippery with ice, snow, rain, especially this time of year.”
During a recent appearance on Community Comment, Johnson noted that vehicles need to stay 200 feet back from a snowplow.
“And that’s when you’re on a road that has a speed limit of 35-miles-per-hour or more,” says Johnson. “If you’re in the city you can get close to a snowplow…but don’t, stay back…play it safe. It’s not just snowplows, it’s salters too. You don’t want the salt on the top of your car and it’s rock salt…it can scratch up your vehicle.”
Johnson says in Wisconsin there is no law preventing drivers from passing snowplows but adds that it is a bad idea recommends against doing so.
