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‘Near-misses’: Greater Victoria plowers beg drivers to not pass them

Passing snow plows can pose a danger to both drivers and others as the snow is thrown to the right
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Passing snowplows can be highly dangerous. (Wolf Depner/ News Staff)

Road maintenance services are warning drivers that passing snow plows is highly dangerous.

With the holiday weekend coming up and the weather worsening, Emcon road services is pleading with drivers to take the dangers of driving in severe weather seriously and allow snowplows to drive uninterrupted.

In a tweet Dec. 23, Emcon stated that snow-fighters have experienced several near misses of cars passing them as they clear the roads.

Officials are warning drivers to “Slow Down and Move Over” if they see snow plows coming.

BC Transportation tweeted that passing plows on both sides is a no-no but passing on the right is particularly dangerous as the plow throws snow that can cover the roadway and obstruct visibility.

In a subsequent tweet, BC Transportation said that there may be many plows on the road and passing one can interrupt this method of plowing.

“Another reason not to pass plows on right or left: It may be first of a series of 2-5 more plows, staggered diagonally across the road to clear all lanes simultaneously,” they tweeted. “This practice is called Echelon Plowing, and would require the unwise driver to make multiple unsafe passes.”

READ MORE: BC Hydro prepares for outages as freezing rain looms for Victoria


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Hollie Ferguson

About the Author: Hollie Ferguson

Hollie moved to Victoria from Virginia in September 2022 with her partner Zachary and their two pups, Theodore and Bibi.
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