Hey, there! Log in / Register

Snow? What snow?

Snow on a car in Newton

Julia C. was annoyed enough at this roving pile of white death that she saw on Nahanton Street in Newton to report it to the Newton PD.

Neighborhoods: 
Topics: 


Ad:


Like the job UHub is doing? Consider a contribution. Thanks!

Comments

idiot.

up
Voting closed 0

SSDS Sticker - Solomon Schechter Day School tuition runs $23K to $27K per year. SSDS - When Newton schools are just good enough.

up
Voting closed 0

I thought it meant Same Shit, Different Shit.. :)

up
Voting closed 0

See Snow? Don't Shovel.

up
Voting closed 0

Snow Shoveling Deficit Syndrome

up
Voting closed 0

I was gonna go with "stupid shithead didn't shovel."

up
Voting closed 0

Same Shit - Different School

up
Voting closed 0

Its a religious school, for jewish families, like Catholic schools. Would you have said the same thing if the person had a catholic school bumper sticker or do you save your rage for jewish people?

up
Voting closed 0

You think a "My student is on the honor roll at XYZ Public School" wouldn't have gotten the same sneers here? Let alone a BB&N or Beaver Country Day sticker?

up
Voting closed 0

My kids went to some fancy-pants schools, including one mentioned and I never put a sticker on my car advertising it. I don't really understand it. It's kind of a dipshit thing to do, but not as bad as leaving that pile of snow on the car. That does tick me off.

up
Voting closed 0

it was almost unheard of for parents to put a sticker or window decal advertising your kid's high school on their car.

Now colleges were a different manner, especially if it was a prestigious school.

up
Voting closed 0

yes.

up
Voting closed 0

People choose SSDS because they want their kids to have a Jewish education, including partial Hebrew immersion - not something that is (or should be) available in the Newton public schools. Choosing SSDS or Catholic parochial schools is a valid personal choice, not a slur on the local schools, and should be respected.

And I'm sure there are plenty of idiots not clearing the tops of their vehicles whose kids go to public schools.

up
Voting closed 0

With the ticket being $35 for not clearing off your car, sounds like this person who pays $27k / year for private school education is really going to be hurtin if they get pulled over.

up
Voting closed 0

What does the sticker have to do with the not clearing the snow?

up
Voting closed 0

Hilarious. Move to expensive city with very good schools - feel they're not good enough and send a kid to private school.

up
Voting closed 0

It's not hilarious. It's irrelevant.

up
Voting closed 0

Swim Taxi?

up
Voting closed 0

Savta is hebrew for Grandmother.

up
Voting closed 0

Fessy but ya gotta do what ya gotta do.

up
Voting closed 0

Newton isn't in Boston... der.

up
Voting closed 0

"roving pile of white death"

up
Voting closed 0

I'm all for officer discretion in regards to civil infractions, but this kind of stuff should be an automatic foot up the ass.

up
Voting closed 0

That annoys me as well! If you have anything that's not a truck or an SUV there is no excuse not to clean off your car.

up
Voting closed 0

There's no excuse if you have a truck or SUV either. They have tools to help you get that snow off. Or grab a step ladder. The snow flying off can still kill someone, even if your vehicle is tall and clearing it off is hard.

up
Voting closed 0

The snow flying off can still kill someone,....

Yes, people should clear the snow off their cars, but lets not get over-dramatic. This was the lightest, fluffiest snow I've seen in a long time here in the northeast. With every shovelful, I dreamed of skiing thru this stuff. It's absolutely wonderful snow.

Any snow falling off this car is going to feel like getting hit by a balloon. It hasn't gotten warm at all for the snow to get hard or turn to ice. The snow on that car is as fluffy as when it fell.

This doesn't excuse the driver for not removing the snow, but the dramatics are a bit much.

up
Voting closed 0

You've never driven on a highway where a pile of snow drops form someone's roof and blankets your windshield for a brief second - right when someone's trying to change lanes in front of you?

up
Voting closed 0

The snow doesn't endanger people by falling off the car onto them, it endangers people by flying back right onto the window of the car behind the offender, rendering that car blind for a few seconds. THAT is the danger.

up
Voting closed 0

... if the car has to brake suddenly, and the snow covers _his) (or her) own windshield.

up
Voting closed 0

It's supposed to warm up and rain a little with the snow tomorrow and Monday. That fluffy pile of snow will be a hunk of icy death after that, if it doesn't blow off before then, blinding the driver behind in a cloud of white. It's also against the law (because it's dangerous) so clean the damn thing off. If you say your car is too high to reach, who bought it for you that you had no choice in the matter - ask them to get you one of those extended reach brushes. They have them at Costco

up
Voting closed 0

if you are saying that snow on the roof of cars isn't a serious hazard.

It only takes a half second of being blinded by someone's snow in front of you to veer over or miss a chance to brake.

Also, if a big chunk flies off onto to the car behind it there is the very real chance that the driver would slam their brakes or instinctually veer out of it's way into another car.

A**holes of the world, clear your car of snow.

up
Voting closed 0

... and you drive off the road, or into a parked car, or into a pedestrian, I'm glad the snow they clear from the accident scene will be ski-worthy.

Powdery snow is more likely to spread and stick on a windshield, while heavy snow can potentially break glass in the worst scenario, and obscure your view in the best scenario. Neither seems optimal.

(By the way, in reality, if the snow hasn't blown off that car as soon as they accelerate leaving their home, it's compact enough to do some damage.)

up
Voting closed 0

Wrong.

Powdery snow coming off, especially if there were on a faster-moving road, can blind the driver behind at a critical moment.

Also, this lovely powdery light fluffy snow was changing into nice lightweight blocks by last night.

up
Voting closed 0

Injuries are common enough that at least one Boston area lawyer is ready to take the case:
http://www.bostonaccidentlawyerblog.com/2014/02/avoid_causing_a_massachu...

Here's some fines one might face (from the link above):

Many drivers do not realize that when they fail to properly remove snow from their car roofs, they are causing serious safety hazards on Massachusetts roads. If an accident occurs and you happen to be the driver who had not cleared the snow or ice from your vehicle, you can, and probably will, be cited for either what is known legally as "Driving with an Unsecured Load," which can cost you up top $200.00, or "Driving To Endanger," which is a more serious, criminal offense. Either way, it's going to cost you.

A little googling finds plenty more:
https://search.yahoo.com/yhs/search;_ylt=A0LEViuqWspU4tEAHC4nnIlQ;_ylc=X...

up
Voting closed 0

Lambert was driving behind a tractor-trailer on Route 209 near Jim Thorpe, Pa., when snow and ice dislodged and flew through her windshield, killing her instantly.

This is why I went into detail about the type snow on top of the car in the post and noted that the snow on that car wasn't going to kill anybody. I could have taken a block of snow off that car and dropped it on your head from 10 feet and you would have giggled. Thing is, I wouldn't be able to grab a block of snow off it because the snow was so powdery - it would have just crumbled in my hands.

Maybe you missed the part where I said that snow should be removed from the car. I wasn't denying that the driver was wrong, I was saying the poster was getting kind of dramatic with their claim that this soft, powdery snow could kill someone.

And yes, snow on top of a vehicle can become a flying missile as your article points out. Trucks in particular are really bad about removing snow and sending missiles into the air. I learned that lesson years ago when I was a stupid kid. It snowed one night, then turned to rain, then froze. My car had this glacier on the hood and I was too lazy to break it up. I drove off and got onto the interstate. Between the hood warming up and the air getting under the ice, a huge chunk of ice flew off. Luckily nobody was behind me. Even as a stupid kid, I knew I was very lucky not to have hurt someone.

But again, your example has nothing to do with the car in the picture.

up
Voting closed 0

If this car had driven yesterday morning instead of this morning, I could possible see that the snow was powdery, but after sitting for 36 hours, the snow looks as though it has compacted. Otherwise, wouldn't the snow hanging down over the rear window have fallen off in the person's driveway? Or when they began their drive?

We don't really know what the snow on this car was like. It they came home during the beginning of the blizzard the snow that fell on the warm car could certainly be ice this morning.

I can't excuse the behavior on the assumption that the snow was harmless. It may not have been. I think the reactions that this could create a deadly situation are not out-of-line.

up
Voting closed 0

When that crap turns to ice chunks, it can smash a windshield (happened to my brother) or even rip open a tire (happened to me last year). A less experienced driver, attempting to avoid a large flying chunk, can also cause a mulit-car accident.

up
Voting closed 0

Thinking they are above the law and common decency is such a typical move from an SUV driver.

up
Voting closed 0

such a typical move from a Boston driver.

Fixed that for you.

up
Voting closed 0

That picture was taken in Newton on a school snow day with a Newton school sticker on it. Seems pretty darn likely that's a Newton resident.

up
Voting closed 0

Masshole driver.

up
Voting closed 0

Like having to buy gas more often, it's one of those things you have to accept when you own a larger vehicle. They make telescoping snow brushes, or you can stand in the door and push the snow to the other side off the roof.

up
Voting closed 0

Seriously, that could've been the content of the article body.

up
Voting closed 0

Really need to show the person's plate number? Come on

up
Voting closed 0

they're driving around showing their plate number. You think they should be able to drive around anonymously acting like a jackass?

up
Voting closed 0

so showing the license number is fair game. No "right to privacy" here.

up
Voting closed 0

These types tend to be litigious when embarrassed.

up
Voting closed 0

This is a bonehead move, because, that snow can also let go and blind the driver of that car.

Over Thanksgiving I was driving my dad's car the day after there was a little snowstorm. I cleaned everything off, or I thought I did, but a coating of snow got stuck between the roof rack glides on the roof of the car--it was just a coating, and I didn't think anything about it.

I'm driving down to the Post Office, and I hit the brakes to make the turn into the drive. **Schlump** the snow let go and slid down onto my windscreen. A coating of crusty snow over the entire roof of a station wagon adds up, so by the time it all collected on the windscreen, I had about six inches of visibility over it. Luckily, I had only about 10 feet to go into the parking space about about five miles an hour, so I just inched into the space and then cleaned off the snow. Different story if this had happened while I slowed down on the highway or something.

up
Voting closed 0

I dont like these kinds of posts.. maybe he was in a rush, maybe he only drove two blocks to drop the kids off at school? With that much snow on the pike, its irresponsible.. but we dont know the context. Easy to call people on this, especially after the snow we have. you can do better than this.

up
Voting closed 0

What is it they say about most accidents happening within a mile of your home?

up
Voting closed 0

Most people never leave the 5-mile radius around their home

up
Voting closed 0

Never, ever?

up
Voting closed 0

It's from a study done in 1834.

up
Voting closed 0

Oh the humanity.

*eyeroll*

up
Voting closed 0

I was almost hit this morning by a perennial Cambridge City Council candidate who received just double the number of write in votes who failed to clear the entire passenger side of his front windshield! Not to mention the snow pile on top....

up
Voting closed 0

But encouraging discourse on semantic, self rightous BS.....

Parochial 'burg banter For The Win.

up
Voting closed 0

Try minding your own business.

up
Voting closed 0

Taking a flying fuck at a rolling donut.

up
Voting closed 0

I find myself looking at the photo of the car, its silhouette with the dome of snow above, flaring out to the fenders below - and saying

Darth Vader's helmet?

or

Legion of Doom HQ?

up
Voting closed 0

At least they're using their turn signal.

up
Voting closed 0