PennDOT Shares Winter Preparation Tips

Pittsburgh, PA - As the winter season approaches, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) outlined its regional winter maintenance plans in Allegheny, Beaver, and Lawrence counties and encouraged the public to be prepared ahead of the first accumulating snow fall.

Motorists should prepare their vehicles for the winter by checking fluid levels, lights, defrosters, and windshield wiper blades. Tires should also be checked often for the correct level of air pressure and adequate tire-tread depth to safely perform on ice and snow.

Once vehicles are travel-ready, drivers should be prepared for winter or vehicle emergencies. PennDOT urges the traveling public to carry an emergency kit, which should include items such as non-perishable food, water, first-aid supplies, warm clothes, a blanket, cell phone charger and a small snow shovel. The kits should be tailored to the specific needs of the individuals in the vehicle, with items such as baby supplies, extra medication, pet supplies or even children's games.

If motorists encounter snow or ice-covered roads, they should slow down, increase their following distance and avoid distractions. Last winter in Pennsylvania, preliminary data shows that there were 151 crashes resulting in three fatalities and 55 injuries on snowy, slushy or ice-covered roadways where aggressive-driving behaviors such as speeding or making careless lane changes were factors.

When winter weather hits, the department's goal is to keep roads passable, not completely free of snow and ice. PennDOT's primary focus is on interstates and expressways. The more traffic volume a roadway has, the more attention it will receive from plows. There may be more accumulations on less traveled streets and driving routes should be adjusted accordingly.

To help the public prepare for the season and share information about winter services, PennDOT offers operational information and traveler resources on its winter web page. The site also has a complete winter guide with detailed information about winter services in each of PennDOT's 11 engineering districts.

The public can access travel information on nearly 40,000 state-maintained roadway miles year-round at www.511PA.com, and during the winter they can find plow-truck locations and details of when state-maintained roadways were last plowed. The information is made possible by PennDOT's Automated Vehicle Location technology, which uses units in the over 2,600 department-owned and rented plow trucks to send a cellular signal showing a truck's location.

Locally, when winter roadway emergencies occur on state roads, PennDOT District 11 will use its social-media platforms to help keep the public informed. Follow PennDOT on X and join the Greater Pittsburgh Area PennDOT Facebook group.

PennDOT is actively seeking temporary equipment operators statewide for the winter season to supplement the department's full-time staff. Details on minimum requirements - such as possession of a CDL - as well as application information , are available at
www.employment.pa.gov/penndot. Through the same website and www.employment.pa.gov, job seekers can apply for other non-operator winter positions such as diesel and construction equipment mechanics, welders, clerks and more.

For more information, visit www.PennDOT.pa.gov/safety.

PennDOT's media center offers social-media-sized graphics highlighting topics such as seat belts, impaired driving, and distracted driving for organizations, community groups, or others who share safety information with their stakeholders.

MEDIA CONTACT: Yasmeen Manyisha, [email protected]​

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