Community All-Stars: The unsung heroes of winter keeping Idaho’s roads safe

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI) – As the temperatures drop and the snow falls one questions always seems to come up: "How are the roads?"

The people who really know the answer are the hard-working drivers behind the massive snow plows.

Crews with the Idaho Transportation Department work long and sometimes difficult 12-hour shifts to ensure the wintry roads remain safe for travel. Jared Loosli, ITD's Idaho Falls Maintenance Foreman says, "We'll run 24/7 as many days we have to as long as it keeps snowing."

It's a job that not many people would choose to do, but an important one that needs to be done, and with it comes risks. According to ITD, between 10 to 20 snow plow crashes typically happen every season, most of which are caused by drivers who don't know how to navigate safely around the plows.

"We are big. We don't stop easy. We don't turn real quick. We're not agile. And so if something happens, sometimes it's just it ends bad," Loosli says, and, "I worry about the public. I want I'm here for them. I want to make sure everybody goes home at night."

This job may sound simple–drive the plow, push the snow, lay the salt–but it's much more difficult than it seems. Jeremie Pettingill, ITD's District 6 Operations Engineer says, "These guys are constantly looking every action they've got a controller, they're running through, how much salt, they're applying, the pressure of the plow, the wing as it's coming out. They're constantly just doing something with their mind."

As we look at many more winter months ahead, thank you to the plow drivers who help keep the roads safer. You are this week's Community All-Stars.