Coca-Cola Bottling Co. of the Lehigh Valley has deployed the device the last four years. Watch video
You've been there, driving along the highway as sheets of snow and ice fling off of other vehicles.
Four years ago, company executive Joe Brake tasked managers at Coca-Cola Bottling Co. of the Lehigh Valley to come up with a solution.
The result was a frame-like contraption fashioned from scrap steel that the Bethlehem-based company uses to scrape snow and ice from the tops of its tractor-trailers.
This is the fourth winter the bottling plant and distribution center near routes 22 and 378 has deployed the device, which is meant to avoid sending projectiles toward other motorists on the highways.
"Most people probably don't even know we have it," said Chuck Evans, the company's sales director. "We don't necessarily promote it. It’s just doing the right thing by our people in contributing to the safety of our community."
Coca-Cola Bottling Co. came up with the design after seeing a similar device used to clean buses in the Parkland School District outside Allentown, Evans said.
"We came back and adopted that idea and built it ourselves," said Evans, who at the time was the company's logistics director. "We had some steel left over from production equipment and our maintenance manager fabricated it himself."
Just on the other side of the plant's entrance gate, truckers drive under the frame before hitting the road after a snowstorm. A rubberized wedge at the top clears snow from trailer rooftops as trucks slowly drive through.
Evans estimates it took about three weeks to build.
"Our fleet mechanic sets the height and the drivers run through it," Evans said. "It gets as close as possible to the roof, removing all but about a half-inch of the snow. The little bit that's left usually melts right off with a little bit of sun. It's a real quick, simple operation."
Fines for snow-covered vehicles
Coca-Cola's move was in response to a recommendation from Pennsylvania Sen. Lisa Boscola, who has urged highway safety and drafted bills aimed at toughening laws for those who don't clear their vehicles of ice and snow.
Boscola took up the cause after a tragic accident eight years ago in which a Palmer Township woman died after snow and ice dislodged from a tractor-trailer on Route 209 near Jim Thorpe, Pa., and crashed through her minivan's windshield.
Coca-Cola Bottling Co. uses the snow scraper on its 10 tractor-trailers but still clears its side-loader trucks by hand, Evans said. The company takes pride in its commitment to safety, he said.
"Joe Brake came to us and challenged us to think in terms of continuous improvement, coming up with simple solutions to make us more efficient," Evans said. "With his being an influential person and our company being part of the community, we certainly wanted to be the ones to take an active approach in terms of people's safety."
Boscola, D-Northampton/Lehigh, was instrumental in passage of a law after the 2005 death of Christine Lambert that enabled fines against certain drivers. Lambert's family helped lobby lawmakers to make it a crime for snow or ice to fall from a moving vehicle and cause death or serious bodily injury.
Boscola is renewing her push for tougher laws against those who don't clear snow and ice from their vehicles. She has two bills in the Senate Transportation Committee.
Others stepping up
Coca-Cola isn't the only Lehigh Valley company that has taken greater responsibility, said Steve DeFrank, Boscola's chief of staff.
Trucking firm A. Duie Pyle in the Bethlehem area uses a snow scraper, and Walgreen's, which has a distribution center in Hanover Township, Northampton County, uses a de-icing system, he said.
Each winter, reports of flying snow and ice on highways mount, DeFrank said. On Dec. 16, an ice chunk dislodged from a utility trailer in Lower Mount Bethel Township and shattered a tractor-trailer's windshield, slightly injuring the rig driver.
Current law prescribes fines for drivers only if snow or ice from a vehicle causes death or serious bodily injury.
One of Boscola's bills in the Senate Transportation Committee, Senate Bill 745, would mirror New Jersey law by punishing all drivers who fail to make "all reasonable efforts" to remove snow or ice before driving. That would give law enforcement officers the ability to levy tickets before an incident.
The other bill, Senate Bill 746, scales that back a bit by excluding most passenger cars and trucks but applies to drivers of vehicles that weigh 48,000 pounds and up, DeFrank said.
Most of the more-publicized incidents have involved large trucks or 18-wheelers, according to DeFrank.
Boscola points to Coca-Cola Bottling Co. and the relatively simple measures it has taken to improve driver safety.
"You don’t have to spend a lot of money," DeFrank said. "Coca-Cola took a couple of pieces of scrap metal, welded it together, created a blade and addressed a potential life-threatening situation.”
Boscola has said she'll look to move the bills through the Legislature once lawmakers are back in session in January, or draft it as amendments to other bills.
"You’re reading about this every day. You’re watching it happen," DeFrank said of flying ice. "Most people have seen this. It’s not unheard of."The state of New Jersey requires it now. What we're saying is if we’re not going to require it for all vehicles, we need to require it for the larger ones because the dangerous ones are the trucks.”