Folks who live in cold听areas pride themselves on their ability to handle snow better than their southern counterparts. However, whether you live听in Minnesota or North Carolina, a quick glance at the news reveals a string of wrecks and pile-up accidents whenever snow starts.
Learning how to drive in snow is a tough task no matter where you live. The first step to safer driving is knowing what kind of winter weather you’ll encounter. Snow is more manageable than sleet or freezing rain. If it is going to snow, will it be a blizzard or a quick-hitting clipper? You鈥檙e more likely to wreck in a short, fast moving storm or snow squall, and you鈥檙e more likely to get stranded during a blizzard or lake effect snow.
The best thing to do in either case is to be proactive. Here’s how.
How to Drive in Snow: 3 Tips for Noobs
Don’t Underestimate a Light Snow (and Don’t Panic)
Most people worry about getting stranded by a foot of snow, but a foot of snow isn鈥檛 always what you need to worry about. A dusting of snow can be . A thin layer of snow on roads easily melts under the heat from heavy traffic. Subfreezing temperatures can refreeze the snowmelt and turn roads into a sheet of ice. The resulting ice can lead to horrendous traffic disasters, like the ones in听 or .
If you hit an icy patch, the worst thing you can do is panic.听The second worst thing you can do is slam on the brakes. Hitting the brakes when you鈥檙e on ice turns you into a curling stone without anyone there to steer you in the right direction. You can easily lose control.
The simple fact is, you听can鈥檛 do much when you鈥檙e sliding on ice. There鈥檚 no real way to bring your vehicle to a stop without regaining traction or coming to rest against something like the guardrail听or another vehicle. What you can do听is try to keep your vehicle going as straight as possible by turning your wheel into the spin. Keeping the vehicle straight lowers the chances that you鈥檒l regain traction when you鈥檙e sideways, which could subject you to a rollover.
Unfortunately, not everybody is able to keep control of their car when they slide on ice. A wreck is bad enough. A pile-up wreck is many magnitudes worse. Each winter, somewhere in the United States, we inevitably hear about some stretch of highway closed because dozens of vehicles got into a chain-reaction accident.
If you鈥檙e ever caught in a pile-up accident, odds are high that people are going to hit you from behind. That could be exceptionally dangerous if the traffic is moving at high speeds. Sometimes the best option is to get out of the vehicle and get away from the road. However, you only want to get out if you have a clear shot to the side of the road or behind a barrier or wall. The most dangerous place to be in a pile-up wreck is a pedestrian at risk of getting hit by oncoming cars or flying debris.
Don’t Accelerate Your Way Out of a Jam
In deep snow, it鈥檚 common for travelers to get stuck on roadways or even听stranded.
If you鈥檙e ever stuck in the snow or ice while driving, don鈥檛 try to floor your way out of the situation. Attempting to get unstuck through acceleration could suddenly launch you forward or lurch you to the left or right, endangering anyone outside of the car and putting you at risk, too. It鈥檚 also not good for your vehicle. Remember the infamous in Raleigh, North Carolina, a couple of years ago? That car caught fire because the driver revved the engine too hard trying (and failing) to drive up that icy, snow-covered hill.
It鈥檚 helpful to have a couple of simple supplies in your trunk to help you get out of a sticky situation for when you do get stuck. Carry something like kitty litter or a long strip of cardboard to help your tires gain enough traction if they become stuck. Keep a small shovel in your car to clear snow away from your tires.听Don鈥檛 forget to stock some food and water just in case you鈥檙e stranded on the road for the long haul.
Clear Your Car
The most useful听safety advice for winter driving is the one too many people ignore鈥攃lean the snow off the roof of your car. There鈥檚 nothing more infuriating after a snowstorm than to see someone flying down the road with a roof full of snow, locked and loaded like an icy gun, ready to cause an accident. Slabs of snow and ice could fly off the back of your car and hit the vehicles behind you. The snow could also slide forward when you hit the brakes, completely obscuring your view of what鈥檚 ahead. Driving around with snow still covering your roof or windows is illegal in some states and it鈥檚 not safe. Invest in a听snow brush. It takes a little bit of work, but it鈥檚 worth it to avoid an accident or hefty fine.