Driving in snow and Ice

IF you live in California especially, it is possible you have never driven on snow or ice.

So, for those of you who haven't here are some things that will help you stay alive if you do.

My first real experience in a full on snow storm was in Denver. MY friend and I were college age and I was dating his sister and we were returning from a Church Convention in Chicago by plane and had just landed in Denver and were visiting members of our church in Denver where there was one of our churches. So, my friend who was a few years older than I that I had gone to Sunday School with in Church since I was 6 years old and maybe he was 8 had rented a Chevrolet Impala and he started driving on the freeways there in heavy snow. I didn't realize just how inexperienced he was driving in snow (because I had no clue) until we left the freeway and went right through a guardrail and took it out because we had left the freeway onto the exit too fast to stay on the road. Luckily, neither we nor the car was very injured (or anyone else) but this taught me my first real lesson at age 18 that neither of us should have been driving in snow in Denver that day. So, I didn't really trust him driving us in the snow after that (as you would expect).

So, this was my first education driving in serious snow where it was about 1 to 2 feet deep and All of Denver was like something out of a fairy tale (at least for two guys from Los Angeles) who had never lived in the snow much. However, and he (without cars) had both graduated from a private church school in Santa Fe, New Mexico (each for only our Senior years) I had graduated the previous May 1966 and he likely had graduated there in 1963 or 1964 and his sister who I was dating then had graduated in 1965. So, it's not that we both hadn't lived in the snow we just hadn't driven in the snow before then.

I remember a friend told me to go to the park in Santa Fe to watch all the people crash their cars into the park after the first storm there. And so I bundled up because the roads were icy and waited for people to crash into the cars and trucks parked near the park. And about one person every 10 to 15 minutes came over the hill too fast and crashed into the rocks or cars parked on that side of the park. So, for a 17 year old in a private school then in winter 1965-66 it was great fun to watch all these people destroy their vehicles one by one. Those that could then drove away. Those with more serious damage to their vehicles had to call tow trucks. But, like I said for a 17 year old this was amazing entertainment watching everyone destroy their vehicles and very educational too.

So, this was the beginning of my education about driving on Ice and snow in winter of 1965 and 1966 in Santa Fe, New Mexico. I wasn't allowed to bring my car from Los Angeles to the private school so I did a lot of walking then at 17 to get places unless my friend with his car was driving me then. IT gave me a lot of time to really think about things and my life and where it was all going which was very helpful to me at the time.

One of my next scary experiences in the snow was driving up from Glendale where I lived in Los Angeles to Chilao and Mt. Waterman in my 1968 Camaro. It had very wide tires and I wasn't watching closely enough that the rain drops were slowly turning to slush and snow so I almost died.

So, there is about a 3000 foot drop off to my left at this point and I went around a corner on a high mountain road and my car went into a 360 spin and beyond. So, I was mostly trying not to go over the cliff with my car spinning like a top on a dangerous mountain road and trying to keep from crashing into the rocks and trees on the other side of the road. The car finally stopped with me facing the opposite direction I had been going. I was completely in shock from this experience alone in the mountains and decided to drive right down home again because I was pretty messed up from almost dying.

So, as you can see almost dying a couple of times made me realize I needed to learn to look for certain signs so I didn't die trying to drive in snowy conditions. Sometimes almost dying a few times (as long as you stay alive) teaches you what you need to be aware of and what you need to know to stay alive in these conditions.

Front wheel drive cars:

 When you chain up on a front wheel drive car you have to put the chains on the drive tires which are in the front. It isn't safe to put the chains just on the rear tires on a front wheel drive car for a variety of reasons. The following maneuver is useful sometimes in snow or ice on roads going downhill.

Next, going uphill in snow or ice with a front wheel drive car is often okay and everything might be fine UNTIL you go downhill and this is where many people (who are inexperienced) get into trouble because the drive wheels might grab in front and cause your rear wheels to start coming around so you are sideways on the road which is really dangerous if there are other cars on the road with you. IF your rear end comes around sideways or further if you have a hand brake depress the button so you can easily release it and lift the hand brake to straighten out your car heading down hill to avoid an accident. Keep applying the hand brake as often as you need it but ONLY if you are depressing the button so you can release it in an emergency. The hand brake is tied usually to one or both rear brakes so on a front wheel drive car this will straighten the car for you in an emergency of going downhill in gear where your drive wheels in front cause your rear wheels to come around 90 degrees or 180 degrees.

Likely to avoid a serious accident I would practice this maneuver to avoid a serious accident when you actually need to use this maneuver on an abandoned road somewhere so you don't have an accident while practicing this. The first time roads are snowy or icy you could practice this to get better in an emergency.

But, it is also true that not driving when roads are snowy or icy or both is the best plan. Why?

Because there are ALWAYS going to be people out there that have NO IDEA what they are doing and could get you killed or injured whenever it gets like this (snowy and icy) on roads. At most in snowy or icy conditions you can ONLY expect maybe 75% of the people driving to be actually safe in these conditions on any day you drive in these conditions.