Flying Ice Poses Risk To Drivers In Wake Of Tuesday's Winter Blast

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Tuesday's storm may be over, but the roadways are still dangerous. Chunks of ice flying off of cars can cause serious accidents for drivers across the Tri-State area.

It's a driver's worst nightmare -- ice chunks flying off of a truck of a car ahead of you. Chopper 2 captured such an incident on the New Jersey Turnpike Wednesday morning. It's a road hazard you can always count on after the weather turns white.

Milou Polycarpe tells CBS2's Vanessa Murdock that even though he had to swerve to avoid a chunk of flying ice, thankfully no accident followed.

"I was lucky, it missed the windshield and hit the hood of the car," he said.

Mahwah Chief of Police James Batelli says both snow piled high on the rooftop of cars or huge chunks of ice hurled at you repeatedly from the roofs of big rigs can cause major problems on the roads.

"It does present a problem, especially on the highway when you're going 50 to 60 miles-per-hour," he said.

State law requires you remove snow and ice from your vehicle. If you fail to do so, you could pay between $25 and $50 for just leaving it on your car's roof. If it causes damage, fines can go as high as $750, with commercial vehicles expecting to pay $1,000 or more.

At the Vince Lombardi rest area on the NJ Turnpike, it's a scene that repeats itself time and again.

Even with the relatively new law requiring cleaning, several drivers CBS2 spoke with said that independent truckers don't typically have a plan in place to go to clear their roofs of ice. Not to mention, climbing up the big rig to do so isn't an easy or safe option.

"Four wheel drive makes digging out simple," Renique Campbell of Mahwah said. "The cleaning off, that's where things get more challenging."