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Family: High Snow Piles Make Leaving Home Unsafe

By Lindsey Seavert, WCCO-TV

PLYMOUTH, Minn. (WCCO) -- A Twin Cities family said they feel like prisoners in their own home because of how their street has been plowed this winter. The VanScoyks say the snow piles are stacked so high along their county road in Plymouth, they can't safely leave their driveway -- and what they feared would happen, did.

For Corey and Tiffany VanScoyk, getting home is the easy part. But trying to leave their house isn't quite as effortless.

"It's like Russian Roulette when you are leaving your driveway every morning," said Corey.

Their Plymouth home sits on the busy County Road 6, and at the end of their driveway are snow banks taller than Tiffany.

"I'm not quite 5'4," she said.

Tiffany said the snow piles higher each time Hennepin County plows the roads. Now the snow banks block their ability to see traffic on this 45-mph road. It makes it almost impossible for them leave the driveway safely -- and late last week they were hit.

"Here is the lack of the front end of the car, where it used to be," Tiffany said, pointing to her banged up car.

Corey said it was only a matter of time. Now he has $5,000 in damages before he made it out of the driveway.

But the VanScoyks say it could have been much worse.

Their two boys are often buckled in the back seats. The couple said they pleaded with Hennepin County, only to learn that removing the snow was now their problem.

"There has already been a car accident and you're telling me something else is a bigger priority than the safety of my family. That makes me angry," said Tiffany.

"They are thinking about dollars, I am thinking about my boys," Corey added.

Now the VanScoyks possibly face a long winter, when leaving home leaves too much at stake.

Hennepin County said they are not ignoring the family's concerns. It's a resource problem.

A transportation engineer said the county removes snow according to priorities and his crews are still overwhelmed by the cleanup from last month's snowstorms.

Crews are focused on dangerous areas in Minneapolis now, so it could be several weeks before they get to other problem areas.

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