GARDEN CITY, Idaho — With winter comes rain, snow and icy road conditions. The Idaho Transportation Department and Idaho State Police are hosting free winter driving classes to help prepare drivers ahead of the snow season.
- You can find more info on Winter Safe Driving classes here.
- You can sign up for the most recently added class here.
- You can find tips from ITD about winter road safety here.
(Below is the transcript from the broadcast story)
“It’s a great opportunity for drivers who may not have much winter driving experience to learn what winter driving entails," says Matt Kreizenbeck, the District 3 Community Outreach Coordinator for ITD.
He tells me this is the first time they’re offering winter driving classes in District 3. The class covers topics like driving around snow plows, snow plow operations, and what ITD does to keep roads clear in winter conditions.
“At the front of the plow, we’ve got our plow. This is 12 feet wide, which is about the width of a travel lane on the highway. And then we’ve got our wing plow here which is up to 10 feet wide, so our plows can be 22 feet wide," says Kreizenbeck.
He tells me the safest place to be is a good distance behind the plow.
“Passing the plow on the right is a bad idea. You’ve got this out here and sometimes, depending on conditions outside, it can be tough to see this wing," says Kreizenbeck.
“One of our districts up in D-1, Coeur d’Alene, they’ve been doing this class for a while now. And just watching them, it helps improve our drivers' [skills] on the roadway," says Trooper Jace Schirrmacher with the Idaho State Police.
He says this class allows him to teach the public the do’s and don'ts of winter driving.
“It’s going to be a fairly interactive class. Thankfully, with Idaho State Police we’ve brought a bunch of dash cam videos — helping show our own crashes that we’ve been involved in or crashes we’ve investigated," says Schirrmacher.
He tells me many crashes are caused by black ice, poor visibility and following too close to other vehicles.
“Hitting barriers is a huge thing, sliding off. The Flying Wye is a good example of one of our local issues that repeatedly causes headaches," says Schirrmacher. “New drivers, old drivers it’s a great way to help bring everybody in and [get] everybody on the same page of what we’re going be doing and how to properly drive in these conditions."
