Warnings, tickets issued to parked cars preventing plowing efforts

WEST JORDAN, Utah — Snowplow drivers and police are making a plea for people to move their cars off of the road. In West Jordan, police officers spent the day sending that message in person — with warnings and tickets.

They said it’s been a huge problem after the storm, preventing plows from hitting some streets because of it.

Thursday evening, snowplows in West Jordan had been continuously circling the streets for more than 24 hours.

“This whole storm from the start, we’ve been running nonstop,” said Jerry Street, streets division superintendent for the city of West Jordan.

He was nearing the end of a 12-hour shift. The only time he stopped was when Street couldn’t actually get down the street.

“This is some of the worst stuff we deal with right here,” Street said, as he slowed down, approaching a part of the road where trucks and cars were illegally parked on each side. “Two vehicles parked side-by-side on either side of the road, trying to get between them with a 12-foot plow.”

He inched past, clearing the mirror on the door of a large pickup truck by inches.

Street talked about how the tight squeeze slows them down. Sometimes he has to come to a complete stop and wait, especially if there’s oncoming traffic trying to get through. He has to skip some streets entirely. Cul-de-sacs are out of the question when cars are parked on the road.

Jason Duffin, West Jordan public works operations manager, explained how it’s just not worth the close calls.

“We’ve had cars hit in the past, or even trailers, or boats, or whatever. There’s a lot of stuff that people park in the roads,” Duffin said.

It’s also harder to push around the snow because Street and Duffin said the snow gets more packed down the longer they wait to clear it. Street often had to lift his plow off the ground to get around cars as he drove around Thursday.

“We plowed them, but it doesn’t always come off after it gets snow-packed,” Duffin said. “And it takes multiple passes, and multiple trips out.”

Which is why West Jordan police began to help plow drivers Thursday, making the rounds in neighborhoods to talk to residents.

“You getting this one off the road?” Lt. Joe Monson asked a young man who was shoveling a driveway. He was referencing a van parked on the road. “We actually have a snowplow getting ready to come through,” Monson explained. He asked the man to move the van as soon as possible.

Monson and Officer Dalton Sims walked up and down a road littered with street-parked cars.

They placed bright pink warning slips underneath windshield wipers and tucked them in between car doors. Monson said they want to educate the public first, so usually, they only issue a warning.

The warning slip explains the law — no cars parked on the street when it’s snowing or if snow is on the road between Nov. 1 and April 30 — and asks the person to move the car off the road.

If the car doesn’t move, Monson said they’ll come back and write a ticket, or even call a tow truck if the vehicle is preventing the plow from passing through.

It’s a zero-tolerance policy. He said they can’t take into consideration any circumstance of why any vehicle is parked on the road.

“It just becomes a safety issue for people trying to get in and out of their neighborhoods, in and out of their driveways, in and out of their houses,” Monson said. “If the snowplows aren’t able to get through, then it really becomes a problem for the neighborhood more than anything.”

He also mentioned how clearing the roads is important for emergency crews who may need to access the neighborhood roads safely and with enough clearance on each side.

Monson and Sims hoped their outreach would get the streets cleared of cars, so people like Street can clear them of snow.

“Please move your car to make things easier for us. It makes a lot easier to get in and plow your street if the cars are off the road,” Duffin said. “And plus, we can do a better job.”