08-03-2025
New law would help truckers remove deadly rooftop snow and ice
HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) — A proposed law could close one of the remaining gaps in existing laws that — although some of the only of their kind in America — haven't stopped sheets of ice from falling from truck rooftops.
Brandon Hennel, 24, of York County, nearly died in early January when a sheet of ice slipped off a tractor-trailer's roof, crossed into oncoming lanes and went through his windshield. He was on a ventilator for four days, underwent an eight-hour facial reconstruction surgery and — just this week — had wires removed from his jaw.
PREVIOUS COVERAGE > Pennsylvania law requires drivers to remove snow, ice from cars
His father, Paul Hennel, called an existing Pennsylvania law — sponsored by Lisa Boscola (D-Lehigh Valley) and known as Christine's Law, in memory of a woman from Boscola's district when a sheet of ice went through the windshield of a car her husband was driving — a 'good first step,' and one of dozen of its kind in America, while also observing the obvious: that it wasn't enough to prevent what has continued to happen to people like his son.
Initially, the law fined drivers only if ice from their vehicles killed or maimed someone. Then the fines increased, and police got the ability to pull over vehicles with snow or ice on their rooftops that appeared to be a threat; the fine is $50.
The law applies to car and SUV drivers alike, but the reality, everyone acknowledges, is that the task is more difficult for drivers of tall trucks.
Boscola said she wanted to do more, 'but the commercial trucking industry was very opposed to my legislation,' even though she noted some companies — she named Coca-Cola and Walgreens — were proactive about installing their own equipment at their facilities to remove tractor-trailer rooftop snow and ice after Christine Lambert died.
Ultimately, though, she came to a perhaps less aspirational but more pragmatic conclusion.
'The trucking industry alone isn't going to be able to do it. They just won't. And they haven't up to this point,' Boscola said. 'So what do we do? You know, we have to help them.'
As it turns out, she began working in late 2024 on legislation that would provide something remarkably similar to what Paul Hennel called for earlier this week: funding to make rooftop snow- and ice-removal equipment available at Pennsylvania truck stops and weigh stations for even truck drivers whose companies might have their own equipment, but who are far from it when the problem arises.
'However, I'm challenging the trucking industry as well,' Boscola said.
With the equipment more widely available, she would want to do more to insist truckers use it, for example by increasing the fines for not doing so from the current $50 level.
Sen. Kristin Phillips-Hill (R-York County), whose district includes the Hennels' home, credited Boscola with the existing law, which passed unanimously in both chambers. Asked whether she would support further changes, she said 'every time we enact a law, there may need to be tweaks to that law' and she 'would imagine that every member wants to make sure that the law is effective.'
Boscola said she appreciated Phillips-Hill's kind words and would contact her about possibly working together on the new legislation. She recognizes bipartisan legislation requires compromise — 'Maybe when she looks at the legislation, she would want to tweak it a little bit,' Boscola said of Phillips-Hill — but she also knows it has a better chance of becoming law.
'So then nobody gets the credit,' Boscola said. 'It's just both of us. Kind of nice, right?'
Nice indeed, said Paul Hennel.
'I'm very excited to hear this and will continue my mission to make the roads safer so what happened to Brandon doesn't happen to anyone else,' Hennel said.
'And I think the commercial trucking industry would be really happy too,' Boscola said. 'you know. 'I really do, because I think they want to help. And I don't think they want to cause this kind of carnage on the roads, but they're kind of like, 'What do we do about it? It's out of our control once the truck leaves our facility.''
The industry's lobby — the Pennsylvania Motor Truck Association, or PMTA — didn't respond Friday to messages from abc27 News.
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