The public safety benefits of flashing blue and white lights on Iowa's snowplow trucks are so significant that they should be used statewide to reduce traffic crashes, according to Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT) officials.
For the past two winters, the DOT has conducted a pilot project to research the use of rear-facing blue-and-white LED lights on snowplow trucks in a 12-county region of central Iowa. The area includes Des Moines, Ames, Fort Dodge and Marshalltown.
The result? DOT snowplow trucks were involved in 10 crashes over the past two winters in which motorists struck the rear end of the snowplow trucks or sideswiped them. That is a dramatic reduction compared with 29 crashes over two previous winter seasons in which the snowplow trucks operated with only flashing amber lights.
"What we have seen is that the blue and white lights are able to cut through the fog of the snowplow and it is pretty visible, more visible than strictly using amber lights," said Craig Bargfrede, the Iowa DOT's winter operations administrator.
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