DUNMORE, Pa. — Seeing snow or ice cover the tops of trucks and cars is as much of a sure thing in Pennsylvania as the snowfall itself.
Newswatch 16's dashcam captured a massive mound of snow atop an SUV on Interstate 380 the other day.
"I understand, you have a lot of snow, a lot of people don't want to trudge through it and clean their car off. How many times do you go down the road and you see somebody just like that, they only have that little space cleared off in their window? We see it a lot, especially when you get a lot of snowfall," said Trooper Bob Urban, Pennsylvania State Police.
Truck driver Scott Herold says flying chunks of ice have cost him multiple windshields.
"Yeah, it's taken out two windshields of my personal vehicles and two of in company trucks. One of the windshields - on my pickup truck - was almost $1,000 because I had the sensors in the glass, and it damaged the hood and other damage."
In Pennsylvania, it's only illegal for snow and ice to fall off your car or truck if it damages another vehicle or hurts someone.
"You want to make sure your car is thoroughly cleaned off before you get on the highway because if ice or snow happens to go off of your vehicle and cause bodily injury to a pedestrian or someone else following behind you are 100% liable for that," said Trooper Urban.
Police can't ticket you just for having snow or ice on the top of your car. But if it slides down, but they can cite you for having an obstructed view. That's state law.
"That even means air fresheners or anything that's hanging from that rearview mirror, snow or ice, your windshield view has to be clear," said Trooper Urban.
Some Pennsylvania lawmakers have tried to strengthen existing law by mandating drivers remove snow or ice from their car within 24 hours of a storm, but that bill has never passed in the House.