BOZEMAN — When you woke up Monday morning, you may have been facing some pretty snowy road conditions in Gallatin County. So, let's talk to some locals about how they stay safe driving in poor conditions.
I asked Bart May what he would say about the road conditions Monday morning: “Kinda the first storm, I mean I’ll be honest it caught me off guard a little bit driving.”
May has driven Bozeman’s snowy roads since 1988. He tells me when he woke up to snow today?
“Immediately this morning I realized I needed to give myself distance and slow down. And be aware like, there’s slush, there's ice pack underneath,” he says.
After driving around town and seeing multiple slide-offs, I met up with Dillon Smith, a Bozeman Fire captain, to see how busy they were this morning.
“So today we’re looking at fresh, wet snow sitting on top of some slick roads. It’s always going to generate some work for us,” says Smith.
Smith tells me Bozeman Fire is typically busy when conditions are poor, responding to slide-offs and accidents. The most popular place they see such accidents is on Interstate 90, where people drive faster. And although conditions were rough this morning?
“It actually hasn’t been too bad today. It seems like road crews were really on it.”
I reached out to Ted Jones, the Bozeman Division Maintenance Chief for the Montana Department of Transportation (MDT), who told me they’ve been hiring a number of full-time employees.
“We were very proactive on winter maintenance this year. Crews were scheduled. Equipment and materials were ready to go last night. In fact, we started preparing for this storm last week,” Jones says.
He says there were a few minor slide-offs and spin-outs Monday morning, mostly happening between 6 and 7 a.m., but the roads were cleared up around noon.
Although MDT was on top of this storm, Smith says it’s always good to be prepared.
“The big things I would say are making sure that you’ve got plenty of fuel in your vehicle. Driving with your lights on. And then making sure that your windshield and windows are clear, right? We see lots of people driving around with just the port holes. Just enough to see the road in front of them. And it’s not enough for safe conditions.”
And after his many winters here in Bozeman, May tells me something new winter drivers should keep in mind: “Really watch the weather, and I’d say get good tires. I mean, that is a thing. It’s a little bit of an investment, but it’s a good investment.”
