Snowplowing - by the numbers

- Five - the number of car lengths to leave between vehicles.

- 17 - the multiplication factor as snowplows weigh 17 times more than a car.

- 54 - the number of crashes involving snowplows and motor vehicles that resulted in seven injuries statewide in 2006-2007.

- 1,462 - the number of the Minnesota Department of Transportation's priority 1 snowplow drivers. There are 178 backup drivers.

- 30,317 - the number of lane miles of roadway MnDOT is responsible for, of which 4,925 are in the metro area. A lane mile is one mile of a single roadway lane.

- 135,000 - the miles of streets and highways in Minnesota including 12,000 miles of state highways.

- 182,386 - the amount of salt in tons used by MnDOT for the winter of 2006-2007, in addition 51,716 tons of sand and 2.5 million gallons of brine was used statewide.

Source: The Minnesota Department of Transportation.