Winter Hazard Awareness Week returns -- with a contest

By BOB VON STERNBERG, Star Tribune

Last update: November 10, 2009 - 7:39 AM

The timing may not seem perfect, given sunny skies and unseasonable warmth, but this is the annual Winter Hazard Awareness week in Minnesota.

The Department of Public Safety, in conjunction with other traffic safety advocates, declares the week every year to provide a heads-up for Minnesotans whose winter driving skills have gone into hibernation.

The department offers a host of commonsense tips on surviving winter safely at a website: www.winterweather.state.mn.us

According to the department: "Most Minnesotans, through years of practice and experience, are knowledgeable about winter weather conditions. We know how to dress, drive, be active outdoors and generally get through the winter with our lives, homes and property intact.

"Nonetheless, deaths and injuries occur every winter because people fail to take precautions. Carelessness, overconfidence, ignorance and innocence can lead to damage, injury or death from winter weather conditions."

This year, to promote the week, the department is hosting an online photo contest for amateur photographers at the web site. The adult grand prize is a Red Cross emergency preparedness kit; the youth grand prize is a digital camera.