Green Means Safe: Thruway Plows Get Visibility Boost for Winter

By Y.M. Lowy

In preparation of the upcoming winter season, the New York State Authority announced its safety improvements and new equipment.

The Thruway Authority will be deploying more than 50 new pieces of snow fighting equipment statewide including 19 new heavy-duty plow trucks which are scheduled to be in service at the end of the year. Overall, the Thruway Authority will be operating more than 400 snow fighting vehicles ready for the first snowfall.

During the 2023-2024 snow and ice season, Thruway operators cleared more than 1.1 million lane miles, removing roughly 172 inches of snow. The New York State Thruway's 250+ heavy-duty plow trucks will be equipped with green hazard lights in addition to the standard amber hazard lights for the upcoming 2024-2025 snow and ice season. The lights will be used for snow and ice removal only.  Green lights are intended to improve visibility ensuring safer winter operations for both motorists and plow operators. Green lights on plow trucks were approved in 2022 by an amendment in the Vehicle and Traffic Law. 

Drivers are reminded that all Thruway snowplows travel at about 35 mph- which is under the posted speed limit in many cases- to ensure that the salt does not scatter off the roadways. In the last 5 years Thruway snowplows have been involved in more than 75 crashes. The Authority is launching a pilot program in partnership with iCone, equipping 50 heavy-duty plow trucks with devices that provide real time data to navigation apps such as Google Maps and Waze to alert drivers about potential hazards and snowplow activity. This helps motorists navigate the area safely. The devices will operate in select plows where the highest number of plow crashes took place. If successful, the authority will look into installing iCone devices in all Thruway plow trucks.