WYOCENA, Wis. — Drivers may have noticed something new on plow trucks and other municipal vehicles in recent months.
A state law passed last year allows municipal and county vehicles to install green lights to provide extra visibility while crews are working on the roads. The green lights can be installed in combination with the current red and amber lights or by themselves.
Green was chosen because it’s more visible than yellow lights, especially at night and during bad weather, Chris Hardy, a highway commissioner from the Columbia County Highway Department, said.
“We want the public to understand that there’s somebody working in the travel lane that you’re driving on, so when you see that green light, we’re there, we’re on the road and doing work, try to pay extra caution to that,” he said.
Columbia County workers have seen firsthand the importance of extra visibility while working feet or even inches from fast-moving traffic. In the past two years, four or five highway vehicles have been hit in the county, Hardy said.
The switchover won’t be immediate; Hardy said as the current yellow lights burn out on the county’s trucks, they’ll be replaced with the new green lights.
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