Safety in the snow
The Transportation Department and private industry have invested heavily in the development of new information systems for drivers to use in their cars or trucks. Now one branch of the agency has begun to study how those technologies can distract drivers.
In the Snow Belt states, low-visibility conditions such as fog, rain, snow
and darkness can make snowplowing and driving near snowplows dangerous.
From 1991 to 1997, Minnesota experienced an annual average of 37 rear-end
collisions with snowplows.
To make roads safer for snowplows and cars, the Minnesota Department
of Transportation and the University of Minnesota are testing technologies
that mount directly into the snowplow cabs. For example, even when a snowplow
driver can't see the road, positioning information from the differential
Global Positioning System and magnetic tape placed at known locations on
a road produces a visual representation of the road on a heads-up display.
Minnesota's DOT plans to put the system on four more snowplows, a sheriff's
car and an ambulance this fall. While testing a heads-up display at the
University of Minnesota, drivers were able to drive 45 mph when they could
not see the road.
Other technologies may be added later, such as automatic vehicle location.
The snowplows of the future may collect data for other agencies, such as
the Environmental Protection Agency, which may want to monitor how much
sand is dumped on roads.
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