Idiots driving on the first snow

[wjoerob]

Yep, it's the first snow of the season here in central Indiana, and the idjits are sliding off the road right and left. The police announced that there are so many accidents and slide-offs that they have stopped counting.
It never ceases to amaze me how people seem to forget how to drive when the first snow or two come. Doesn't anybody listen to the weather report?
Gives new meaning to "defensive driving" == you not only gotta be careful on your own, you gotta watch out for all those other idjits!

 

[Egon]

On the first snowfall I prefer to sit in the living room and watch all the idiots drive past. That way I'm not one of the idiots!

 

[the_sandman_454]

Drivers training is nowhere near focused enough on operating in bad weather. It's designed just to churn out a new crop of terrible drivers every year. If I were running the show, there would be a mandatory number of hours devoted to foul weather operating, including skid recovery and the like.

It is amazing how many adults apparently "forget" how to drive in the snow too. I don't understand that, seeing how it happens every winter.

Personally I don't use 4wd, and I've heard a number of people comment in a surprised manner about that. My reply is if I can't keep the vehicle in a reasonably straight line in 2wd, I'm probably travelling too fast. There are rare instances where I'll use 4wd, such as when the snow drifts up pretty bad, or gets somewhat deep. For regular use though, 2wd is the way to go for me, since 4wd leads to overconfidence and driving too fast for conditions.

I do like to get out on snowy roads and play around, I won't lie, stuff like drifting corners. Then again I have some semblance of what I'm doing, and don't do this where people are likely to be. Seriously, if y'all have never drifted corners in a 1 ton diesel truck, try it, it's fun. I wouldn't mind seeing a local parking lot cordoned off for the first few weeks so anybody who wants to can use it to practice vehicle handling skills in a safe area.

 

[Egon]

Sandman, come drive your truck in two wheel drive up the street past our house when the snow is coming down. I could stand there we could have a long conversation!

Back when we was young come winter we practiced on frozen sloughs. Got my children to do the same thing.

Of course I can remember a time or two practicing 360's on the highway! When I did drive out of the ditch it was to a tire shop to replace the Goodyear Eagles.

 

[BB_TX]

Being a native Texan in a fast growing area, there are lots of our northern bretheren who have moved into this area. And they just love to talk about how Texans don't know how to drive in the snow/ice. But every year when the first snow storms hit the northern states, the news starts right away about the large number of accidents with injuries and fatalities. Having to travel a lot for work, I am often in the north in the winter. Once in Wisconsin during an early snow storm that resulted in many wrecks and several deaths, I mentiioned what I stated above. One guy just laughed and said they love to tell southerners that and that those who have lived in the north all their lives act like they have seen snow for the first time in their lives each new winter driving season.

 

[ToadHill]

Having driven in many winter ralley's as a younger man, I like to follow Ed McMahon's advice regarding the first snow. When Johnny Carson asked him if he was going out to party on New Years Eve he replyed he was staying home because New Years Eve is amateur drinkers night and any died in the wool drinker would try to compete with them on that night.

 

[WTA]

Having lived in 16 states and 3 different countries I think I know how to drive in the snow by now. I used to ride my motorcycle all the time in Japan and they got snow so bad there that the city crews would tunnel through the bigger drifts instead of trying to push it off. I never once had an accident till last Christmas. The road got icy when I had to drive into town and I was trying to merge onto the highway real slow when a bunch of idiots started coming up on me at 70 mph. I was doing maybe 30 and it was solid ice so that was all that was safe. One of them idiots bumped my truck into a spin that sent me and my wife across 3 busy lanes of traffic and we flipped when we hit the concrete barrier in the middle. My wife hit her door so hard she busted the hinges.
All of that because these idiot last minute shoppers were speeding on ice. I was the only one going any kind of sane speed but it didn't help when everyone else was gong twice as fast. They didn't slow down for me or even try to change lanes. I guess if they had they would have spun out too but that doesn't make it right speeding in the first place. We almost got killed that day because of their carelessness.

Out here in the country we have to deal with drunk drivers all day long but that is another story. Lubbock is a dry city so all the beer stores are out here near where we live. That is very dangerous containing all the liquor stores in one small area of the county instead of how it is in a wet city where they are all over the place.

 

[Bird]

I was the only one going any kind of sane speed but it didn't help when everyone else was gong twice as fast.

Who was charged with the accident? Speed differential does cause accidents and slow vehicles entering a highway with faster vehicles do cause accidents.

 

[WTA]

I wasn't charged with a thing. The cops were real sympathetic. They said they had been writing unsafe driving tickets all morning but only to a fraction of the ones doing it. They couldn't go fast enough to catch many of them. They just said I was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
People have a bad habit of not letting anyone merge in around here even when the road is dry. It's near impossible on ice. I was still in the merge lane when I got tapped too. That guy probably was drifting off the road when he hit me since it was a banked curve.
Speed differential has nothing to do with who's at fault though when the one going faster is way over the posted speed limit and doing it on ice that makes it unsafe to drive even half that speed. On a dry road I don't think they could have even charged me with anything. I hadn't even started changing lanes yet and I did a real good job of spinning across 3 lanes of traffic without hitting anyone else. I think I went in three circles before we flipped.

 

[Bird]

Speed differential has nothing to do with who's at fault though when the one going faster is way over the posted speed limit and doing it on ice that makes it unsafe to drive even half that speed.

Speed differential causes lots of accidents in all kinds of weather and road conditions; i.e., if everyone were going the same speed they probably would not hit each other. As to who's at fault; it can be either the fast one or the slow one, depending on a number of factors. And in most places in recent years, the police do not charge anyone in accidents unless there are pretty serious injuries or deaths involved. So perhaps a more relevant question would have been "whose insurance paid for the damage?"