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Driving in the Snow by Drivin' Ivan
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Well it's finally here! The first snow of the year. This is the day when some drivers inherently get over cautious and (every pun intended) freeze up on the roads causing rear-end collisions, spin outs, and other incidents due to their lack of foul weather driving skills.
I am definitely in favor of learning your cars limits by going to an empty, large parking lot and slipping and sliding to familiarize yourself with how your car will react in an extreme situation. This can be very helpful, and can make you a much safer driver when trouble arrives in a real on-road situation. Now just as a disclaimer, I'm not telling you to recklessly slide around endangering yourself and others, and young drivers should definitely be in the company of an adult driver!
When I was just learning to drive I would take my 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle Convertible (don't get too excited, it only had a 307 motor, it was no SS) to a parking lot and slip and slide as only a front engined rear wheel drive 70's American monster could. Let's just say that body roll was a prominent feature in its handling! I think this exploration of my car's limits saved me and my passenger in a later incident.
I was on a road trip from Longwood College to Virginia Tech back in my freshmen year of college with my friend Greg and it started out normal enough. Plans of meeting up with friends filled our minds, and sounds from an R.E.M. Denon 110 minute mix tape filled the car. It was raining as I headed down the highway in rural Virginia averaging around 65 miles per hour.
As I was driving under an underpass all of the sudden we were met with a sheet of black ice. The Chevelle wanted to swerve off the road but I was fighting to keep it under control. As many of you who are familiar with driving a big boat style American car from the 70's will know, there is virtually no feeling or feedback from the overly power-assisted stearing, and the suspension is extremely wobbly and soft which makes for very precarious handling characteristics.
With my friend so frightened that he probably lost control of his bladder, he was screaming at the top of his lungs, "keep it on the road man, keep it on the road!" The Chevelle was sliding towards the trees to the left, and I was correcting the slide while trying to get us back on the main road and out of harm's way. After swerving back onto the main road and then spinning around approximately 270 degrees to slow us down, we came to a stop on the other side of the road. I remember there being much relief amongst us both and then a couple of high fives to celebrate the fact that we were still alive!
The whole incident probably only lasted about :10 seconds, but I felt like I had just played three sets of tennis and my hands were aching from the many corrective movements that I had to make on the steering wheel to keep us from crashing into the barrier on the right or the trees to the left. We proceeded very slowly and with much caution the rest of the way and we encountered so many accidents that I was shocked. It seems the black ice took everyone by surprise.
There was an overturned Jeep in the middle of the highway. A Ford Thunderbird driver had accordianed both ends of his car smashing into a concrete barrier. All in all, we probably saw another 5 accidents on our journey. It was very scary considering that there was no mention of the freezing rain conditions in any of the forecasts.
Fortunately the rest of our trip was filled with parties and friends, and we arrived safely back at our college on Sunday night with no further weather related incidents. I'm particularly thankful for this because for later in the weeknd I was a passenger in the back of a friend's pickup truck in the sealed camper portion in back.
So take my advise and if you can take your car out in an abandoned rainly or snowy parking lot and test out the way it handles in a slippery situation. It may one day save your life!
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