It’s Illegal To Leave Snow On Your Car In Maine And More States Should Follow Suit

Photo: Andreas Rentz / Staff (Getty Images)

Clearing snow off your car sucks. We get that. It’s also incredibly dangerous for other drivers to leave snow on your roof. So it’s great to see WGME report that Maine finally passed a law making it illegal to drive with snow or ice still on your car. The law actually passed back in May, but this is the first winter that its been in effect.

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The crazy thing is that it reportedly took several years and multiple attempts to get the law passed. Apparently, enough lawmakers were in favor of letting people put other drivers in danger that they were able to block it for years. That’s absurd. Then again, the fact that such a law is even necessary is absurd. Surely, it’s just common sense to clear the snow off your car. And yet, it’s not.

“Just in the last month that I’ve lived here, I’ve had snow from semis come up and hit me on my car. It’s a little unnerving,” Carson Mendoza, a recent transplant from Texas who recently experienced his first real snowstorm, told WGME.

The law isn’t exactly aggressive; if snow coming off your car causes damage or an injury, the first violation comes with a fine of $50 or less. Repeat offenders will only have to pay between $150 and $250. It also only applies to vehicles that weigh less than 10,000 pounds due to significant pushback from the trucking industry.

But the most frustrating part of Maine passing the anti-snow law is that it’s not the default in every state. The vast majority of states are apparently cool with you leaving snow on your car despite how dangerous it is. In the states where it’s already illegal, it’s usually for a very good reason.

“Unfortunately, other states have named this law after someone who has died in a crash where snow or ice has become dislodged from a vehicle,” AAA Northern New England Director of Public Affairs Pat Moody told WGME.