While there may not be enough snow on the ground to shovel or plow in Minnesota, the state department of transportation is wasting no time getting plow operators ready for the white stuff.
Joel Runck traveled to Pike Lake on Wednesday to see the latest technology being used to train plow drivers.

It's anything but a video game.

"It's the closest thing to actually driving the plow," said Carol Brotski, District 1 safety administrator for the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MNDOT).

Equipped with three, 42-inch plasma screens that provide a 270-degree field of vision, this simulator is the latest technology when it comes to training snowplow drivers.

"It gives them the real feel, the atmosphere and also, and the conditions in terms of the exposures on the road," said Brotski.

The simulator is only one of five in the county and it can be used to train operators year-round. MNDOT says when you're in the driver's seat, any scenario is fair game.

"When we're doing the simulation, we can have them have a blown tire, we change the weather on them, we can make their brakes stick on them, so we can do things with their vehicle that you're never going to know unless it happens to you on the highway," said Wendy Frederickson, MNDOT simulator trainer.

Trainers can also program the half-million dollar machine to simulate the effects of alcohol.

"I can even have them drive with five beers under their belt and then they go 'why am I going all over the road', and I say, 'well I just put that you've had five beers in you,'" said Frederickson.

The contraption also drives home the danger snowplows can pose to other motorists.
Plow operator Rick Holt knows this all too well. He's been hit twice while on duty.

"The one car, the front end was pushed in, about a foot and a half, the other car, it hit the wing and tore the fender part of the hood and the passenger door off," Holt said.

Plow drivers say when it comes time to move snow, it's important for other motorists to keep their distance because the weight ratio of plow truck to an average auto is 17:1.

"When you hit a snowplow in a motor vehicle, a car or a pickup you are going to lose," said Holt.

MNDOT, District One says the have 191 certified plow operators and cover about 1,600 miles of state highway.