Scary Moment
The big fat snowballs got worse, coming down really hard the closer I got to work...still manageable. Let me back up a step...I drive a four wheel drive SUV and have driven in WI winters all my life. I've never had an accident nor ended up in a ditch. I do have a lead foot but not in bad weather. I don't think that four wheel drive gives me special privileges. In bad weather I move along safely, not like those people that think if they drive faster then five mph are going to start doing 360's and flip and burst into flames. So anyway, I turn onto the last street that leads to the parking structure. Pretty straight forward. Thinking I'm not going to be late for work and driving through inches of slush, the back end of my SUV starts to slide to the left which of course leads the front end to the right. It was like slow motion, instantly my mind goes into gear for winter weather driving and skids(I was NOT driving fast), take my foot off the gas and try to steer out of the skid. I can't steer... the slush has my tires and I'm along for the ride. My car does a 180 and I slam up against the curb...facing the wrong way. Thank GOD there were no cars coming from the opposite direction or I would have been t-boned. I was still shaking a half hour later. |
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| I did that once up here on 141, did a complete donut. Scare to death to see what was in front of me when I finally stopped. Got lucky that time. |
That IS a scary moment! So glad you are ok and all is well! Love the snow but so glad that I do not have to drive in it on a regular basis! Hopefully spring is around the corner!  |
| After spectacular 360 a week ago, I was uber careful this morning....after not going in a ditch for 30-40 yrs, wrecked my record! And I drive lots of miles through crap weather in the middle of nowhere! However, when the kids were little (so over 25 yrs ago), I did do one of those 180 spins that ended with a sideways slam into the curb...not fun and car was OK...and I was the only one in the car. Like you, I sat there a minute to stop shaking, then continued on my drive....  Here is how my drive started this morning. I had just driven the 1st mile, and had turned the corner for the next mile, heading toward the highway..... our county does not plow Co roads after dark, so after every snow (and LOTS of them this year  ) I drive thru crap like this in the morning..at least now it's light out!: |
Pam glad your OK I just cant imagine even with Dawns photo too driving in conditions like that as we NEVER experience it and even in winter here when there is snow on the Mountains, nothing compared to that  Do you have special Tyers for Winter, just wondering there? Here going up the mountain we carry "Snow Chains" in winter, which have to be fitted for snow driving here. Again I just cant imagine driving in SO MUCH SNOW. Dawn just to make you happy, only 23c today and RAIN here, i have dogs that are eeewing at the wet ground and refuse to go outside, now snow would be interesting, I think they would hold on till the spring thaw    |
| I am so glad you are OK. |
| Bless your heart....I would have probably peed my pants and still been sitting there shaking... Glad you are ok! |
| Glad you are safe. There is no more helpless feeling. I remember doing a wonderful 360 on a major highway....black ice. I was past 180 before I wondered, "how does one get out of this?" I've always wondered if it was a graceful as it felt. |
| Yuk so scary. I know that shakey feeling after doing a 360 on wet road with an oil slick. I've always wondered if it was a graceful as it felt too. I kind of spun on the spot, I kept wondering where the light pole was. Luckily I missed it and was still in the same lane I started in, so just kept on driving but with very shakey legs. |
| Too frightening! Winter driving is never routine, even here in the almost south. Glad it wasn't serious, other than a heartpounding, hyperventilating, trembling moment |
| Wow, Pam. Glad you are okay. No one is immune to things like this, even those of us who are used to driving in crappy winter weather. "Steer in the direction of the skid" only works when you have some sort of traction, in which case you wouldn't be skidding! About 20 years ago, hubby was crawling on 294/94 (Tri-State expressway) in a blizzard and went into a skid during rush hour. He went across all three lanes of traffic, spinning, and slid sideways into the cement divider, which spun him the other way. Miraculously, he didn't hit any other cars, but ended up facing the wrong way, having dented every single quarter panel of his car. As a hockey player, he said it was like gliding on the ice in slow motion, and very smooth except for the whole hitting of the cement thingy multiple times. (Susan, "graceful" sounds about right.) Luckily, the weather was sooooo bad that everyone was driving about 10 MPH (normally doing about 75 MPH), so no one else was involved. Laurie and Oscar |
| glad u are ok that is why i live in fl but that happened to me in fl with a heavy rain .. scary and it stays with u a while |
| Reading what Oscar's Mom wrote reminded me of one of the craziest things that happened to me while I lived in Michigan and had to drive in the snow. I worked at the Blue Cross Building in Downtown Detroit in the early 70's and we had a winter of snow like they are having this season. I had a Chevy Malibu at the time and was driving on Jefferson (it goes along the Detroit River) and there was a ton of snow on the street and ice. Anyway, my car and the car next to me started to slide on the ice and our door handles attached themselves to each other. So we had to figure how to get the door handles unhook, without damaging either car while we were both driving. We couldn't stop or pullover because of the traffic and street conditions. We did, but it was one of the most bazaar things. |
| I am so glad you were lucky this time, Pam! |
| Living up here in Massachusetts, I have a lot of experience driving during inclement weather. Of course as I've aged I've learned to stay the ### home if possible. My most scary moments: The Honeymooners: Driving my on-his-honeymoon brother's car, I was tailgating a pcikup who took offense, I guess, and slammed his brakes. I overreacted at 70 MPH and wound up slamming the guardrail with my rear end. Got it fixed (perfectly, by a body shop owned by a friend of my brother) before he got home, but my blabbermouth father told him before I had a chance to break the news over a nice welcome home dinner... Welcome to Jamaicaway, have a nice day!: One of Boston's most twisty roads follows the contours of Jamaica Pond and is appropriately called The Jamaicaway. This road has 4 EXTREMELY narrow lanes in two directions with a normal speed limit of 25 MPH. It is tree lined on both sides right on the road's edge and every tree shows the many scars of accidents. Anyone unfamiliar with that road on it for the first time has a white-knuckle experience, even notoriously jaded Bostonians. While driving to work in icing conditions on the Jamaicaway, everyone was driving perhaps 5 MPH and in single file, a very unusual event in itself. As we were going up a slight rise and a left bend in the road, suddenly all the 3 cars I could see in front of me and I all started to slide at exactly the same time. We all came to a stop looking like we angle parked with a few feet between us. Getting out of the car, the road was a sheet of ice and I saw 3 of the cars behind me had also parked and the cars behind them had stopped. There was also no traffic coming the other way. Clearly this road had just iced over at the same time everywhere. I went into my trunk and got and installed my tire chains and carefully drove around everybody and got off to work. Have a nice day! Opportunity knocks: Driving towards a girlfriend's home I turned from a secondary street onto a small one-way side street I encountered sheet ice and began to spin. There were cars parked on both sides of the road. SOMEWHOW, I spun so that the front bumper of my car was pointing directly at the passenger door of the car parked on the left, and my trailer hitch ball was pointed directly at the driver's door of the car on the right. I couldn't move! I was no more than 6 inches from the car in front of me, and less than 2 inches from the car behind me! I had to knock on doors to find the owner of one of the cars. I found the owner of the car in front. He CAREFULLY checked both his car and the car behind me, just shaking his head. As he got into his car to move it, I said to him "I'm not sure I'd park here tonight." He just scowled and got in, backed out and I was able to go on my way. The hand of God: Cruising along in our huge diesel pusher motorhome along a back road in Connecticut, Joan and I were relaxing and chatting. Suddenly I look up and notice the car in front of me has stopped waiting to take a left turn. There was a curb and a telephone pole and tree on the right. There was not enough room for me to steer around the car even at crawl speed, and I was traveling at about 35 MPH. I slammed on my brakes and steered right as the motorhome started to skid. I braced for impact as I expected to hit the car in front of me. I looked down and left and incredibly I saw the car go by under my mirror as I missed it. SOMEHOW the motorhome skidded to the right and missed the car and the telephone pole. The only damage was from a tree branch that broke and knocked one of my air horns off of the roof and another that scraped along the whole right side of the bus. Had I hit that car, it is extremely likely that they had already turned their wheels and I would have pushed them into a head-on collision. The car just took their turn and left, likely blissfully unaware. I had to take 20 minutes and clam down before I could move mine. There was just no way that I could have made that maneuver; God must have reached down with his hand and lifted the motorhome and repositioned it to allow for such a wonderful outcome. |
| PS I ***NEVER*** turn my wheels while waiting to turn left. NEVER, EVER. |
| I am glad you were ok, Pam. Unfortunately, I had my own little spin out Wednesday morning and ended up hitting a signal pole and a snow bank. By some miracle and of course the hand of God, no one, including the semi headed my direction, hit me as I hit an icy patch just after I changed lanes and lost control, spinning a couple of donuts. I cannot exactly piece together what happened: cars had not been traveling in the left lane and I knew it would be sloppier than the right, but we were coming to a light and there was going to be a long line of vehicles ahead of me, so I thought I would just take the left lane. I was fine for a few seconds when suddenly my steering wheel jerked to the side and I was not able to gain control. Back end of my car hit one of those flashing lights that warns you when the light is about to change to yellow/red, and the snow bank. I was stuck so deep in the snow I had to be pulled out by a tow truck. I didn't realize at first I had hit anything but the snow bank until I saw the pole down and realized it had been up before. Thankfully, no other vehicle was involved and no one was hurt, except my poor little Camry. I honestly do not know how I am still alive but I am immeasurably grateful that no one was hurt. And thankfully, the repair estimate is under whatever the value for totaling out my car would be. I am not ready to get a new car, but I am getting a new rear panel. And maybe trunk lid. I've driven in a lot of bad weather and a lot of bad weather this winter but I've never had an accident or even a serious near miss. Except for a couple of deer, that is. |
Ron wrote: PS I ***NEVER*** turn my wheels while waiting to turn left. NEVER, EVER.  NO LEFT TURNS..........that's if you want to get more than 100.  viewtopic.php?f=33&t=32203 |
Labbetussa wrote: You know..., hmmmm, maybe there IS something to that; after all in my incident those folks nearly died because they were simply waiting to turn left, they weren't doing anything wrong at all.(PS it should be noted that this is in the US. If you're in the UK, Japan and a few other wrong-way driving countries, change all lefts into rights! ) |
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