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Iowa State Patrol, City of Des Moines gear up for 1st snow of the year

With the heaviest snowfall happening during Tuesday morning's commute, the Iowa State Patrol and the City of Des Moines want you to take it safe on the roads.

DES MOINES, Iowa — City road workers and the Iowa State Patrol have their hands full this week working to mitigate winter weather accidents

Sgt. Alex Dinkla with the Iowa State Patrol shared how he and his team are getting ready for the first snowfall of the season

"The Iowa State Patrol, we take each one of these weather events very seriously. Especially the first snowfall of the year," he said.

Adam Smith is the Deputy Public Works Director with the City of Des Moines. He explained how the first snow of the year always brings a busy day, with over 200 snow removal operators hard at work 

"To us, the first snowstorm is probably the worst. We have new drivers, this will be their first time out, and then we have the public who needs to remember how to drive and winter conditions sometimes," Smith said.

No matter what the weather brings or when it decides to bring it, Smith and his crew are prepared to spread salt and remove snow until all 2,200 lane miles of Des Moines streets until they are clear.

"We have all our salt delivered. we have everything mounted now. so we're ready. once we get geared up, the trucks will stay loaded now and we're ready to go," he added.

Dinkla shared one of the leading causes of accidents is winter weather, with the Iowa Department of transportation citing 75% of all crashes in Iowa happen in less than 2" inches of snow.

"One of the things that we see a lot is people driving at those inappropriate speeds, they have too close of a following distance. and they're not prepared if another vehicle slides in front of them or they have to come to an abrupt stop and traffic's backed up on the interstates," Dinkla said. 

He also suggested: now is a good time to put winter kits in your car for the season.

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