Gary W. Graley
“Imagination is more important than knowledge"
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
- Joined
- Mar 2, 1999
- Messages
- 27,445
Well, I've been driving now for well over 50 years now and yesterday I found out what icy road covered by 2" of freshly fallen snow is like. Down in south Williamsport PA there is a McDonalds on rte 15 near the Little League Baseball. It was snowing pretty hard but didn't look like much of any thing to worry about. I had a quick breakfast at McDonalds and to exit that McDonalds you go around and up a small hill to a road that takes you back to rte 15. Well, that small road is also on a hill going down to the highway and had not had any traffic on it since the snow started falling. I pulled onto it and applied my brakes very early before I was anywhere near the highway and with the motion of the car, a Subaru Forester, the car just started sliding down the hill, I tried to brake harder and NOTHING was happening! I was headed straight onto two lanes of traffic !!! As I swung onto the road I saw cars swerving horns blaring and very nearly needed some fresh underwear myself as one large SUV was coming right at me and I saw no way that it wasn't running right into my drivers door!
But at the very last second, we missed each other, a miracle if ever I had witnessed one. Got under control again and the highway surface was such that I was able to get moving up the hill. Still snowing hard out and the rest of my drive south I was SUPER cautious but once you hit ice, there isn't much that you can do and on the rest of the trip there were 4 cars, trucks that had spun off the road and were being pulled out of the ditches, it was a very bad morning for a lot of folks!
As I was driving on, I am pretty sure the person that just missed me was still behind me and at one red light I saw her holding up her phone and pointing it at the back of my car, no doubt getting a photo of the license plate of the idiot that just blatantly pulled into traffic without any care about other people. If I could have been able to stop and talk with her I would have thanked her profusely for saving both of our lives as it was super close!
SO, yeah icy road, fresh snow, bad combination! I only ever remember driving on black ice in Houston early morning flight home, pulled out of the hotel driveway onto the road and I was doing donuts down the road! fortunately it was very early and I was alone at the time, that too was scary as you don't have any clue it was that slippery.
My car is a 2022 with less than 2k miles so the tires were pretty close to new, not heavy snow tires but all year round type but on ice, I don't know of anything other than studded tires that might have made a difference.
G2
But at the very last second, we missed each other, a miracle if ever I had witnessed one. Got under control again and the highway surface was such that I was able to get moving up the hill. Still snowing hard out and the rest of my drive south I was SUPER cautious but once you hit ice, there isn't much that you can do and on the rest of the trip there were 4 cars, trucks that had spun off the road and were being pulled out of the ditches, it was a very bad morning for a lot of folks!
As I was driving on, I am pretty sure the person that just missed me was still behind me and at one red light I saw her holding up her phone and pointing it at the back of my car, no doubt getting a photo of the license plate of the idiot that just blatantly pulled into traffic without any care about other people. If I could have been able to stop and talk with her I would have thanked her profusely for saving both of our lives as it was super close!
SO, yeah icy road, fresh snow, bad combination! I only ever remember driving on black ice in Houston early morning flight home, pulled out of the hotel driveway onto the road and I was doing donuts down the road! fortunately it was very early and I was alone at the time, that too was scary as you don't have any clue it was that slippery.
My car is a 2022 with less than 2k miles so the tires were pretty close to new, not heavy snow tires but all year round type but on ice, I don't know of anything other than studded tires that might have made a difference.
G2
