Change Your Driving to Meet Changing Weather Conditions
December 1, 2008
Where I live the snow has begun. We have already had a number of significant snow falls and it continues to accumulate. At this time of year it is critical that people adjust their driving habits to adopt to weather and road conditions.
Every year I get many new clients because people continue to drive too fast for the conditions. Everything seems fine and suddenly, with no warning, a car is out of control - spinning and sliding.
Frankly I am appalled at the manner in which people will drive during a snow storm. A typical example happend in a snow storm during which I was driving home from a family vacation in the south. Traffic was slow - there were only two of three lanes being used on this divided highway. This meant there were tire tracks in the right two lanes. Most drivers weren't even changing lanes between the two that were being used. Occasionally some yahoo would go by in the left lane - obviously confident in their ability to handle the conditions better than anyone else on the road.
Suddenly I see a small compact car fast approaching in the left hand lane, just like many of the previous yahoos. He or she whizzed past us. About 10 minutes later traffic came to a stop. I knew we were going to come up to an accident. As we inched forward I see in my rearview mirror two other cars flying along in the left lane - it was still clear of traffic despite the accident stoppage. As I watched in the mirror I saw the first car begin to lose control. As that car lost control the car behind it, likely touched the brakes, but in any event also lost control. Both cars went into the grass median. They both had enough momentum that they slid back into traffic - one hit the car in front of me and the other hit the car behind me. Fortunately no one appeared to be injured.
The end of the story - about 1/2 an hour later we had inched forward enough to reach the next overpass. That is where the true tragedy had occurred. That first compact car I mentioned had lost control and ran into the bridge abutment. I have no idea how seriously the driver and/or passengers were injured - but I suspect the injuries were very severe if not fatal given the damage to the car.
Please adjust your driving. Although you may be frustrated by the slow pace of traffic it is better to get to your destination in one piece than not arrive. More importantly from my perspective - don't take the chance that you will seriously injure or possibly kill another person just because you are impatient. Sometimes - conditions are as bad as others make them outs. Sometimes - your driving skills aren't quite as good as you think. Slow down and adjust your driving to the changing winter road conditions.
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