We’re reintroduced to them each year when the first snow falls. For lack of a better name, we’ll call them the Submariners.

Most Minnesota motorists prefer to have the best possible rear- and side-view visibility on the road, especially when the weather turns bad. Not Submariners. They clear off only enough windshield snow to create a small porthole to the outside world.

Submariners leave their side and rear windows covered, either ignoring the obvious dangers of limited visibility or hoping that the snow will eventually melt or blow off. If not, who really needs to see where they’ve been anyway?

Those of us who brush, scrape and defrost until our windows and mirrors are clear find it difficult to understand how Submariners think. We know they should be avoided, though. In particular, no one wants to be behind a Submariner on a highway, where in certain conditions sheets of ice can fly off their rear windshields, trunks and roofs.

Submariners are part of a growing group of common-sense-challenged motorists who, along with impaired and distracted drivers, put themselves and others at risk by making bad choices. And we all pay for those miscalculations — in injuries, lost lives and higher insurance rates.

Submariners also are likely breaking the law, which states that “no person shall drive any motor vehicle with the windshield or front side windows covered with steam or frost to such an extent as to prevent proper vision.”

So take off your blinders and be more considerate on the road, self-absorbed Submariners. You’ll see the world in a whole new light.