BUTLER TWP — It’s one of those things many people take for granted that can have dangerous, even deadly, consequences: Shoveling the snow off the driveway and into a street.

“Not only do they make a mess, but years ago, my good friend’s sister was killed that way,” said Andrew Zulick, who has worked for the Butler Township Road Department for 36 years. “It makes a real hazard.”

When people push snow onto the roads, they create unexpected hazards for motorists. Sometimes the snow itself is slick and other times it melts and freezes. Zulick said the woman he knew who died hit one of those spots in a different municipality, slid through an intersection and was struck.

“That probably happens a lot, but it’s just noted as poor road conditions,” said Zulick, who on Monday urged the township commissioners to adopt a “zero tolerance” policy and cite and fine people who throw or push snow and ice onto a road.

Officials throughout the county say township road crews aren’t alone with this complaint.

“It’s a huge problem. I’ve seen it in my own neighborhood,” said Mindy Gall, Butler city clerk. “It’s a real source of frustration for our road department.”

Both the city and township have ordinances forbidding this activity.

In the city, throwing snow onto a street from a sidewalk or driveway can net a fine of $25 to $300. Additionally, violators could be jailed for up to 90 days.

The city ordinance calls for snow to be “thrown to the inside of the sidewalk or piled on the owner’s property.”

In the township, the fine for throwing snow or ice onto a street is $100 to $600, and violators can spend up to 30 days in jail.

Township manager Ed Kirkwood said after hearing from Zulick, he and police Chief John Hays are working on a program to better enforce the ordinance.

Gall said she knows people have been cited in the city in the past, but she’s not sure how aggressively the ordinance is enforced because when bad weather strikes “everyone gets so busy,” including the police department.

Hays agreed, noting the days the complaints of snow come in they’re almost always accompanied by other weather-related police calls that require immediate attention.

“Today is a prime example,” Hays said Tuesday. “We had two calls (about snow in the street). But we also had a number of crashes and cars stuck in ditches and alarms at the exact same time.”

In Middlesex Township, people who intentionally throw snow in the street are given a written warning from police who take note of the person’s license plate number and address.

Middlesex Township manager Scot Fodi said that’s usually enough to deter the behavior in the future. He said he’s not aware of anyone reaching the point of a citation in the decade he’s been with the township. But if a person does, he would face a fine of up to $1,000 and 90 days in jail.

“We take this seriously,” Fodi said.

In downtown Butler, the dilemma is a little different from the more rural roads, said city Police Capt. David Dalcamo.

“We have a lot of pedestrian traffic, so there’s a need to keep the sidewalks clear,” Dalcamo said, noting the people are cited regularly for that offense.

However, Dalcamo said residents and law enforcement in the city both need to use common sense relating to the problem.

“Right now there’s just so much snow that there’s no place to put it in the city,” Dalcamo said.

“Some people are shoveling out a place in a parking lane for their car and piling it in a different place in the parking lane. And our ordinance calls for snow to be cleared within 12 hours of the snowfall … over the past couple of weeks, it has snowed like every eight hours.”