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How NOT to drive in snow.


lew

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We drove to North Bay on Saturday for my wife's grandfather's 90th birthday. The drive north was a little greasy in spots and some guy beside me got his backend squirrely, I kept waiting for him to slow down (foot off the gas peddle but not on the break) as he tried to regain control but he never slowed down, even once he almost had it back under control and he ended up spinning out and going off the road.

 

When I learned to drive you couldn't shop on Sundays and the mall parking lots were a great place to learn how to handle a car in snow.

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We drove to North Bay on Saturday for my wife's grandfather's 90th birthday. The drive north was a little greasy in spots and some guy beside me got his backend squirrely, I kept waiting for him to slow down (foot off the gas peddle but not on the break) as he tried to regain control but he never slowed down, even once he almost had it back under control and he ended up spinning out and going off the road.

 

When I learned to drive you couldn't shop on Sundays and the mall parking lots were a great place to learn how to handle a car in snow.

thats were i learned as well. My pops had me at james bond levels in no time. It was fun at the time, but it taught me how to handle a vehicle pretty darn good. Only had one accident in my life and it only involved me and my car, thank god. And i drove the 502 from fort frances to vermillion 5 times a week for years, and man o man thats a brutal highway
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The idiots started getting out of the cars more than 4 minutes before all the carnage stopped. I'm surprised only one person lost his or her life that is sad but lucky only one. Is the video sped up? Even if it was sped up, too fast is too fast. I have never seen a Nascar driver get out of the car in the middle of a crash, unless the car or someone else catches fire.

 

Notice it all continued until a 52' rig stopped in the middle of the highway, even then someone flew past and struck the cars and people on the right shoulder. I counted 8 people out of their cars at one point with more numbers heading towards them. Then more than a dozen on the opposite highway for a shot at getting hit there. What are people thinking? Is it shock? An inherent human reaction for some people to help? What? My cousin and her 2 little one's were struck waiting for a tow on the I-90 outside of Buffalo when she got a flat. Someone said she was crossing the highway when it happened. Yes they were very seriously injured. One kid limps today 25 years latter. Intelligent yes, she's has her PHD in nursing, stupid, yes that too, unfortunately intelligence and common sense aren't always a crossover.

 

Last year we watched a VW fly past us on a very icy #11 with ski's strapped to the roof just north of Webers, we all said he's going to be in the ditch when we get to him. There he was upside down when we finally caught up. And of course a bunch of people standing around the car.

 

I know there are some big rig drivers here, would you stop the tractor trailer and put your rig in the path of these idiots coming in at 100K or more to warn them to slow down? Looking at the video it's when that guy stopped most of the oncoming traffic slowed down except for one that swerved to miss him and piled into the cars and people on the right shoulder. I'll have to look but a few big rigs went through the traffic unscathed. Those gals and guys know how to drive.

 

This video is going to all my family that thinks because having snow tires means 120K on the 400's makes you good to go. And the nieces are all driving those little 4 bangers with rear drum brakes and 13 inch wheels with a Bluetooth in one ear, stereo at 100db, with a coffee in one hand and talking to the office doing business. If the speedometer goes to 160 it must be safe to do 125. One sister in law actually told me they wouldn't make cars that can go that fast if it wasn't safe to.

 

Scary stuff boys and girls very scary.

 

Lew where do you find this stuff? Thanks for the link, maybe it will convince one person to slow down.

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Maybe it's me but I'm getting too fed up with idiots to feel sorry for some of those drivers. They're the same ones that go past you on the QEW/40x doing 130+ and yet have no idea how to handle a vehicle if the back end steps out, if they need to stop suddenly or change lanes to avoid something. Watching that video was interesting, other than the people that just slowed down, I spotted only one driver that was smart enough to get off the snow-free icy lanes and use the snow covered right shoulder to scrub off speed. And yes, the people out walking around the crash area are just out of their minds...not to mention the bigger meatheads who decided that standing on the other side of the median, where the drivers are not having to slow down and most likely looking at a pile of smashed up cars, would be a better idea. It's just too easy to get a driver's licence and for some, too easy to keep it.

This concludes today rant. Back to our regularly scheduled lives. LOL

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There are serious accidents every winter which often result in death, yet people still fail to drive according to conditions. I have zero sympathy for anyone who has driven in winter conditions for a season or two and still fails to put two and two together, especially when the same thing happens year after year.

 

While many recommend staying in the vehicle, if my vehicle was immobilized I'd be getting out of my vehicle and running to the shoulder as soon as I figured it was safe enough to make it. Staying in your vehicle in the middle of a snowy/icy highway when you know full well that the majority of drivers on the road are clueless and incapable of driving properly basically makes you a sitting duck just waiting to get whacked.

 

 

 

A few years ago a coworker was driving a pickup towing a dump trailer early in the morning (no snow, dry roads, he should have noticed the wet looking icy bridge) when we spun out and hit the ditch hard due to a bridge literally being as slick as an ice rink. After we came to our senses we realized another pickup had spun out before us and whacked a telephone pole hard and he was bleeding pretty good. He was about 6-7 ft from the side of the road walking around inspecting his truck when I tried convincing him to move and eventually had to threaten him that I'd move him myself if he didn't get away from the road. Whether the accident had scrambled his brain or he was just stupid, I don't know.

 

I slid back across the bridge and hopped over the guardrail and began waving my jacket and motioning "stop" to attempt to get people to slow down as neither vehicle was visible and drivers would have no warning that two had already spun out. This didn't work and a Jeep went flying by, spun out, missed the first truck by a few feet, and was airborne for 20ft before hitting the bottom of the ravine. Another car did a 360, sat for a second or two, and kept on his merry way. As stupid as it was, I then moved to the middle of the road (two lanes each way) to force people to stop which finally put an end to it until the OPP and fire arrived.

 

 

Maybe someone who is a firefighter or cop can chime in...

 

What are you supposed to do to get other motorists to slow down in a situation like this?

 

 

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I think that part of the requirement for getting a drivers license should be attending and showing ability in a skid control school. Too many people get a license on a nice sunny dry day and the first time they hit ice or snow they panic and there it goes.

 

I had some chinese food delivered last night, paid the man, 20 minutes later he was back at my door, he couldn't get out of my driveway (it does have a bit of a slope to it) he wanted to know if I would give him a push. (I don't push cars anymore) I just walked past him, got into his van, backed it out of the driveway without spinning a tire and parked it on the road for him. As he left he said "thank you, I go home now!" I thought to myself GOOD IDEA!

 

When I was a kid growing up in Quebec we'd often drive down the road and jam on the E brake and do 360s just for the fun of it (with 4-5' snow banks you couldn't do much damage if you did loose it LOL). It really taught us how to handle our cars on bad roads.

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