This weekend's winter storm across the state sent out the secret bat signal for plow drivers’ start to their busy season.
"I think all together in the last two weeks, I think I’ve had, 140 hours? 135 hours? Something like that? In the past two weeks, so, not all overtime," Mike Morey, heavy equipment operator for the Town of Ogden, explained.
What You Need To Know
- Snow plow drivers took to this streets to clear roads across our communities when winter weather hit this past weekend
- Mike Morey has been a truck driver for years, but this is his first busy snow season with the Town of Ogden
- He reminds people to be patient with snow plows, pay attention, and slow down on the roads
Morey has been a truck driver for years. He has had his CDL B license for roughly 14 years and recently left a career as a bus driver.
"My last job, I used to wear shorts year around, its its all new for me having to wear pants and I was inside all the time," Morey said.
He’s had his new gig for about ten months.
"The best part is, you’re up higher than everybody else," Morey laughed.
However, this is his first season working for the town with a snow plow attached to the front of a six wheeler.
"This is only a six wheeler. They call it a track truck, because it’s short, but this plow right here is just like one of the big truck blocks, which is considered a ten wheeler," he explained.
The weekend's storm is giving Morey his first opportunity to adjust to plow weather.
"When it does that, its nerve wracking," he explained. "Try not to hit garbage cans, mail boxes, all that good stuff… Try my best not to hit anything."
But this weekends weather brought on new challenges to the job.
"Saturday night, once it got dark, it was like you were in the Twilight Zone," he said. "When you can barely see the plow and it’s only ten feet in front of you, that’s bad."
And just like that, clean up efforts were in full-swing. Morey says he used around four or five thousand pounds of salt in one day in the neighborhoods he plows alone.
"When it’s snowing and blowing real hard, I worry about everybody else, like the people driving around," he said.
Plows across the state were on-call to keep our communities safe, but in order to keep our plow drivers safe, Morey says it comes down to one thing.
"Patience is a big thing," he said. "Pay attention. Slow down. That’s the biggest thing is slow down, and watch for us. We’re doing the best we can to watch out for you. It’s a big part of the job."
As for the snow, Morey says it doesn’t mind it.
"Let it come," he said.