We're going to talk with two of our guests today. Patrice Brunette is here and also Christopher Gallagher.
Would you tell everybody what your jobs are with the county?
I am the engineering manager for Scene County so we do the roadway planning and you know design and procurement of
monies and all those good things that go into our infrastructure.
We're responsible for those roundabouts.
To some degree when we are looking at dangerous intersections we will look at funding and
Wistat is very pro roundabout so we sometimes are able to get highway safety funding
that the state helps pay for quite a bit of the projects. So yes we do look at those.
Do they really work? I mean do they keep people safer than in a red light?
Yeah they do. It depends on the crash history scenario usually.
Yeah.
Okay Patrice.
I am the highway operations manager so the plough drivers and the guys you see doing the road maintenance are my team.
God bless the plough drivers. I live on a main street so I get ploughed right away.
The only thing is I will shovel my driveway and get my car out at about 430 in the morning.
And there comes the plough driver. He puts it all back.
Yeah.
And at that point I can't tell you what's going through my mind because I can't do it here.
But I know he's got a plough the road. I know it's got to do it.
But I just let me get my car out first. Let my wife worry about getting her car out later on.
Anyway so we're talking about that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And at that point I can't tell you what's going through my mind because I can do it here.
I'm not getting her car out later on.
Anyway so we're talking about winter safety.
And let's start off because it's the first on the poster here.
Snowmobile safety.
And I told you a story off the air about a friend of mine whose son was killed in a snowmobile accident.
He hit a tree.
And it was over instantly.
And you had a lot of snowmobile in here in Wisconsin.
Even a long spring street I could see on Sunday morning.
But we go to church and snowmobiles are out there.
They go in the culverts and on people's lawns and so forth.
Dangerous.
Yeah very much so.
You know we would recommend if you're especially if you're driving the west part of the county.
Check out the snowmobile trail maps in your area.
There's even a number on our website there.
The staying safe program that can give you some more information of where the trails are.
Because once those riders are out, of course it's winter.
It's lower light.
There's darker in the evening.
So they're a little harder to see and those trails crisscross the highways in certain spots.
So definitely doesn't hurt to take a look at where those are where you might encounter snowmobiles in your vehicle.
And you know I got to say when you're in the city area, it seems probably even more dangerous.
But when you're upstate, you know you got a lot of wide open area there going through people's farm fields and everything.
It's probably a lot of fun.
I was never on one.
My mother would never let me get on the snowmobile.
She would never let me get a little mini, but she would let me do anything.
I couldn't play sports in school.
She was a war.
Somebody tackle me and I'd be killed.
So.
It's too bad.
She didn't let me do anything.
All the kids in my neighborhood did it and no you're not doing it.
But anyway, so snowmobile safety.
First of all, just like driving a car, you can't do it drunk.
Because you know, again, you'll hit a tree.
You'll hit another person.
You'll flip.
And there's really nothing around you but a helmet.
That's it.
When you flip, it's you know, crack neck.
It's everything.
Right.
And I talked a little bit.
We were off the air and I talked about the importance of a helmet.
So we're the safety gear for sure.
If we're going to do that, a helmet pretty much saved my brother's life when we were younger.
So pack the gear and wear the gear traveling across bodies of water.
I guess ice can crack.
And you've seen it every year.
Snowmobile is taking a dump right in the water.
And you lose the snowmobile and possibly your life.
But snowmobiles they got to fish it out sometime.
And probably it probably wouldn't be a good condition.
But people do that all the time to go across lakes.
You know, try to go across Lake Michigan, do they?
No, I wouldn't.
I don't know if you'll enough to go out on the Great Lakes.
That's for sure.
I heard this rumor once when I first moved to Wisconsin that the lake was so frozen over.
You were able to walk to Michigan over the lake.
I never, nobody ever told me if that was true or not.
I hope you never see a winner like that.
Where it froze it over.
All right.
Are you both from this area?
Yes.
You're both from Wisconsin, local locals.
Yep.
You never knew Floridian winters where it's freezing at 62 degrees.
No, no.
And my daughter lives down.
And she says, oh, it's freezing last night.
It was like in the 60s.
Hmm.
Okay.
My, my, my, my I have a tear for you.
I'm sorry.
Uh, let's see.
Staying on marked trails.
Again, you would see him.
It would seem to be obvious you would do that.
But people don't do it.
They decide, well, I'm going to go over here.
You don't know what's under that snow.
It could be anything under that snow.
Correct.
Yeah.
Sometimes there's, uh, you know, utility poles,
uh, world-way work that's near the ditch line where they've pulled things out.
You know, ladder, uh, longitudinally along the ditch.
And you don't want to hit a ski on the end of a telephone pole,
because I've seen that happen.
You have, you don't have your notes with you, do you?
Uh, stay, uh, the safety first.
They say, uh, keep a kit with you.
Like a safety kit when you're traveling on a snowmobile.
Uh, always wear a helmet.
There you go.
Helmet with goggles.
And, uh, let me see if I can read that here.
When I wear glasses, I'm in no man's lane,
because I don't need glasses to read.
But it's too fur.
It's, you know, it's like that perfect distance where I can't see either way.
Uh, let's see, winded cold layers of clothing.
This stuff is pretty obvious.
You know, when I see snowmobiles out there,
they look like they're pretty well prepared.
They got the helmets, they gear on and everything.
But, you know, I don't see too many of them.
And, uh, here's no before you go.
Every county has a snowmobile trail.
Oh, again, you can get,
we're the maps online.
Stomach wheel tram trail maps.
Yeah, you can, you can check those out online.
And then, of course, you can call the Racine County snowmobile trails hotline.
They have the number.
You can look it up online.
And, uh, there you go.
Just be safe, snowmobiling.
It looks like a lot of fun.
It's just my mother said it's dangerous.
I couldn't do it.
So I've never done it before.
Um, I never rode a motorcycle before either.
My mother said, you're not getting on a motorcycle.
So I never did that before either.
It was very afraid I was going to get her.
I don't think I'm an idiot.
I could, you know, anyway, uh, blizzard driving driving a car in a blizzard.
I'm going to tell you my story right after the break.
But this can be dangerous.
You can't see what you're doing.
It's a whiteout.
And probably the best thing is not to drive.
But, I mean, you got to go to work.
I mean, here at the radio station,
if I don't show up at 530, there's no one else here.
I mean, it's just, it doesn't, you know,
it's not one of those jobs where you can say,
oh, we're going to close down today.
Well, radio stations don't close down.
I know that after all the years, I've been working in it.
Uh, drive only if it's absolutely necessary.
Stay at least 200 feet behind the plow.
Yeah, people like to get close to the plow because they feel,
well, if I'm close to them, then you'll plow the way.
But they shoot out those pellets of, uh,
in a salt and the ding in your car.
And you don't want to get that in your radio too.
Um, let someone else know if you're headed out because
they're every year about people stranded and they,
they're dying in their cars.
They got stuck and they were there for days and not so much here.
But when you go to like Colorado and Wyoming and Montana
and it's a rural out there and you get stuck at the middle
and nowhere.
That can be dangerous.
You guys ever get stuck in a blizzard?
I have not.
Is that your phone that just beeped?
Yeah, sorry.
Give it to me. It's not mine.
This is like school.
It's not mine.
I'm gonna get it back again.
You'll get it back at the end of the interview.
Yeah, you'll get it back later.
Do you guys ever get stuck in the snow?
No.
I mean, stuck but not for days where I had to.
No, no, no.
I mean, like you couldn't get out and they tell you to keep a,
like a mat, like a door mat so you can stick it under the tire
and that does work.
Oh, sure.
But now you got to figure out which tires got the power.
Some are front wheel drive, some are real wheel drive.
And you stick it under and you can get out of a,
out of a mess there.
We're talking winter driver safety or just winter safety for that matter
with the Racine County Traffic Safety Commission.
Christopher Gallagher's here, Patrice Brunette.
And then we're talking about blizzard driving.
Here's my story.
I think I've told us on a year about a thousand times,
but I'll tell one more time.
If the Groundhog Day snowstorm in 2011, it was,
it was just, I guess, March.
Well, Groundhog Day, February 2nd.
And so it was 24 inches of snow.
And I left, I started shoveling the driveway at 330 in the morning.
And it just wouldn't stop.
Actually, my wife took a video of me shoveling it.
It's like a shovel, it's blew back.
But at least I got the car out of the driveway.
And I couldn't see.
And I get to the Main Street Bridge.
And I couldn't see where the railings were on the bridge.
And I said, I'm going to crash into that.
I'm just getting scared.
Because I couldn't see it.
I never was in a blizzard like that.
So finally, a police car got in front of me.
And I was following him.
And he went down 6th Street, not normally the way I go,
but I figured 6th Street is probably safe.
And all of a sudden, he vanished.
I couldn't see him.
He just got ahead of me.
And his lights were gone.
And I couldn't see the traffic.
The street lights was just so white outside.
And I managed to get down to Ohio.
And I started to get down to Ohio.
And I looked at Victory Avenue where the radio station was.
And the snow was brought up to my knees.
I said, I can't drive through that.
I could stuck.
And I couldn't even turn the car around.
So I backed up.
The car is around.
And I got to the wall.
And I got to the Speedway gas station at the corner of Ohio.
And what's it called?
Highway 20.
Washington, good to have you.
And he wouldn't let me park there.
So I went across the street to Walgreens.
And I got on my knees.
Two of the meditaries.
And please let me park here.
And he said, OK, just pull up against the building.
So the snowplow can get through.
And you could park here all day.
And we'll just, when you get down later today.
So my wife had packed clothing, canned food.
I don't know how many years she thought I was going to be out.
But so I have to get over this berm that the snowplows left.
Thank you very much, Patrice.
Welcome.
This, this, this, this berm.
And I took my stuff and threw it over the berm.
Keep monitoring.
Like 50 mile an hour winds blowing.
And I got over the berm.
And I start walking down Ohio.
And the wind blew me down face, face in the snow.
And I'm trying to get through.
It's up to my knees at certain points.
Get to victory avenue.
And I can't walk anymore.
I am so exhausted.
And I get to the building.
Tom Carco on his directors here.
And he got me and got me some water.
And thank goodness my wife gave me a change of clothing
because I was soaking wet from all the snow.
I get in the building.
And I got here on relatively close to being on time.
Now, here's what I didn't know.
My heart was failing.
And a little over a month later, I had open heart surgery.
And when I told the surgeon about the story, I just told you.
He says, I can't believe you didn't die in the snow.
I can't believe your heart took the screen of walking in the snow.
So I'd open heart surgery.
They fixed whatever they had a fix in there.
And he said, I couldn't know if I had known about this condition.
I would never have walked it.
But I didn't know.
I just don't know.
I'm out of breath.
50 mile an hour winds.
So the moral to the story is it's dangerous in a blizzard.
Don't drive.
Don't walk unless you absolutely have to stay home.
Listen to the radio and just enjoy.
It's like, you know, the school days.
Remember when you sky we saw this new radio.
When we heard our school district was closed.
Yeah, let's go.
Let's go out.
That was fun.
Yeah, that's the ever.
Wasn't that the best day school day school closings?
Yeah, I love that.
They don't have that in work though.
Usually not here anyway.
No, that's good.
Nothing's closed.
So blizzard driving stay home unless you absolutely have to go out.
Stay at least 200 feet below.
Beside that.
Back of plow trucks because people say, well, I'll go back
of the plow truck.
Let someone know where you're going here.
Out just in case.
And carry an emergency kit with you.
It's a good idea.
Yeah, so a couple of bottles of water.
Maybe a first aid kit.
And flashlight flashlight.
Two warmers hand warmers.
Those chemical warmers are nice to have.
You do get a little trouble.
Jumper cables.
Jumper and mats.
Put a mat in there.
But sometimes you get stuck on the snow.
You can get the mat.
If you put it under the wheel.
And also some salt maybe.
When we used to drive light duty trucks and we needed weight in the back
because you're getting on the snow in the ice.
And so your rear wheel drive vehicle is spinning.
We would actually put bags of cat litter back there because then you could cut them open
and use them as traction.
So you throw that down on some of that slick snow if you get stuck in the ditch
or something and helps you get out.
It's another casual pooping pee in the snow afterwards.
Some day.
Sure.
They'll find it.
Okay.
Okay.
People are traveling because this is every year people are dropping dead from snow
as shoveling.
You know all the indictment news.
Some 90-year-old guy was that.
Might lead a 90 or a guy across the street from us.
Snow shoveling all the time.
And he put me to shame.
He's in his early 90s.
And now he passed away from Covid.
But this guy snows in stop him and I'm saying, Oh, I can trouble.
There's a 90-year-old guy across the street shoveling.
It wouldn't mean he can't shovel.
But everybody's got a different condition.
So.
Pace yourself.
You know, you gotta.
I mean, you don't try to get through 24 inches of snow.
Or even six inches of snow right away.
Pace yourself.
Take a break.
Drink plenty of water.
That's the big thing.
If you're experiencing, experience chest pain.
Shortness of breath.
Or signs of a heart attack.
Stop.
I mean, you don't want to continue.
Use a, when I say that, I can't read that.
Use a shovel that is comfortable.
And these shovels now that are bent at like a 45 degree angle.
Is it pretty good?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Pretty good.
When everybody's hurting their back, you know, that's the other side of the equation is.
Trying to find a shovel that fits you right.
It's not too long of a handle.
Not too short of a handle.
Well, one year the so-so patterner who took our snowblower out and just.
Got all the snow.
Oh, yeah.
The light snow.
Yeah.
Give me with a snowblower.
I can't even clean up.
A leaf blower.
Yeah, leaf blower.
I mean, it works.
It doesn't work with wet snow.
The wet snow is dangerous.
That's the heaviest.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Try to push the snow instead of lifting it.
See, I don't do it.
I do it sometimes.
But it's something you got to get.
You know, I got a double wide driveway because of my neighbors.
And, you know, I hate to leave his part.
So I'm always out there.
I try to clean it.
If they scoop, if it's wet, small amounts at a time.
That's the best way to do it.
And never, never stick your hands into a snowblower.
You know, we have a snowblower.
Electric one I've had for like 26 years.
Still works fine too.
It's a Toro.
It's small, but it moves the snow.
But, you know, snow when it's wet gets stuck in there.
When I go out to handle it automatically shuts off.
So I can kind of clean it out.
But still, it's dangerous stuff.
Yeah.
You know, you're snowblower accidents all the time.
And finally, if you're caught out in the freezing cold hypothermia.
Wow.
It includes uncontrollable shivering, memory loss, this orientation.
Oh, you hear about these stories about people lost in the mountains in Colorado and stuff.
Now, they can't figure out where they are because of the cold.
I mean, they just, they don't know.
It was a famous story that movie from Dougie Howard.
Dougie Houser started the movie.
I feel what it was where they were lost.
And he couldn't find his way back.
He just got lost.
And he lost.
Well, they wound up losing his legs and part of his hands and stuff.
Because he just got stuck out there in the cold in the mountains in Colorado.
He just thought, well, I can make it.
And he couldn't make it exhaustion symptoms of hypothermia are detected.
Get to the victim.
Get the victim to a warm location.
Remove your, I gotta tell him not to do these bright colors.
Sure.
Yeah.
Get warm clothing on.
But always hydrate.
It got to stay hydrated in these things because it really, I mean,
it takes a short time.
And then he had frostbite.
This includes feeling and numbing, a white pale appearance on the extremities,
such as fingers, toes.
Yeah, this is dangerous stuff out there when it gets cold.
Get medical help immediately if you can.
Now, here in the city, we don't have, you really can't get lost
in Racine unless you're out in the county somewhere or on a rural road.
But we are a city.
It's hard, but a lot of these trips people take through Colorado
and Wyoming into the mountains and Montana.
They get lost.
Nobody knows.
It can't get to you because cell phone coverage in these areas is not existent.
But if you see a snowstorm coming, don't take off.
When people don't prepare always because you have maybe a short trip
and you don't hear your in town.
But that's why if you're going to pack your emergency kit
through a pair of gloves ahead in there.
Maybe you don't wear those every time you go to the office.
But then you got them with you.
If you get stuck, you know, part of your just preparedness for winter.
Now is a good time to be packing that stuff, thinking about that stuff,
looking at your tire tread.
If you're thinking about getting new tires in the next few months,
maybe now is the time to do it before the snow flies.
And people still use chains in the mountains they do.
Yeah.
In fact, I think there's some states that require it
if you're, you know, going to be traveling in certain areas.
You cannot go up the mountains and Colorado without them
or in certain times a year.
Remember studded tires?
Yeah.
The damage the roadway paid into.
I know.
They outlawed them in a lot of cities.
They're metal studs.
And they ripped the road apart.
Yeah.
I mean, they kept you from sliding.
But come spring, the road was torn to shreds.
So a lot of cities don't allow studs anymore on the cars.
But we used to change the tires every year.
My dad had put winter tires on the car.
But they don't really have that anymore
because they have these all weather tires.
These radials now, which work pretty well.
We were talking about that in the way here.
So interestingly enough, if you are comparing, you know,
the all weather tire, most people are using an all season tire.
But a winter tire, like an all season tire will stop you roughly.
If you're driving 60 miles per hour and you're on a snowy road,
you're looking at a 600 to 660 foot stopping distance,
where a winter tire can stop you in about 300 feet.
So they really do a good job.
If you're interested in having a little more control in the winter,
that's the kind of thing that bothers you and you're willing to spend the money.
The winter tires really do help.
Yeah.
They do.
Right.
They're very, you can notice them.
But then in the spring, you got to take them off.
Correct.
Because you'll ruin them.
Right.
You just put them on.
My dad used to switch them.
No, he had brought them in.
They get switched.
But he always put the winter tires on the car.
And it worked.
He had studded tires.
My last supervisor here at the county did exactly that.
He would switch his tires out.
Yeah.
We always have them sitting in the garage.
There's four winter tires for his car.
Because he had, it was a long schlep for him to get to work.
So he wanted to put them on there.
All right.
Okay.
So everything we talked about is on the website.
We're seeing county slash staying safe.
We're seeing county slash staying safe.
Have you missed anything?
We're going to podcast this by tomorrow morning.
You'll have a podcast.
But winter driving is coming.
Not when it's 50s, you know, 57 degrees.
But soon, maybe this weekend, there's a chance
to snow this weekend.
Yeah, Saturday.
Really?
Yeah, Saturday.
Really?
Just heard that.
As I was leaving, the wife mentioned it.
We're getting ready.
We'll take you one to be quiet.
Don't know.
She's going to put the whammy on everything.
By talking to really.
I didn't hear about that.
Yeah.
We got the Christmas downtown Christmas parade Saturday right here.
And we're seeing.
It's supposed to be Saturday night, though.
So you should be able to get through the parade.
I think when they say snow, it could be a snow that just, you know,
be just the dustings or not even a dusting.
Just hits the ground and vanishes, but it does snow.
Well, thank you guys for cheering up my morning.
I have something to look for.
I don't want to look forward to it.
Well, thank you guys very much.
Patrice Brunette and also who's happens to be a brunette.
Patrice Brunette and Christopher Gallagher here.
They're representing the Racine County Traffic Safety Commission.
Tom Nitter, wherever you are.
Thank you for setting this up every month.
We do appreciate it.
Winter driver safety or just winter safety, whether you're sledding,
whether you're doing snowmobiling, whether you're walking,
whether you're driving, whatever you're doing, keep it safe this winter.
And they'll be around for the winter after that.
Snow this weekend, huh?
Maybe.
We'll see.
Strong on the major.
Get your tires ready.
Give me a wife's number.
I got a check.
I'm going to see what her forecast is.
Thank you guys very much.
You're welcome.
And again, this will be podcast by tomorrow morning.
Just go to wherever you get your podcasts and search Don Rosen's show.
And you'll see it there.
It's obvious, all right?