so we are getting a little snow, which turns my 1 hour commute into a 1.5 hour commute. [each way]. today, I was driving through a small town and some suzuki sidekick or something very similar was driving about 5 car lenghts in front of me in the fast lane. I was in the slow lane (imagine that). there were two lanes going south bound, and two lanes going north bound. we were going about 40 mph and no divider to keep us out of oncoming traffic. so this guy just locks up his tires, never lets ups, and skids at about a 30deg angle into oncoming traffic. a truck (chevy tahoe?) in the oncoming fast lane had to pull into our fast lane to get around him. VERY CLOSE to a headon collision. this jerk ends up in ditch on the other side of the road.
Things we can all learn from this.
1) Be prepared. see Studs article
2) leave plenty of room. had I been behind him I would have got hit head on.
3) if your in a slide, use a little common sense. I know not everyone has taken a mechanical engineering class so let me clue you in. you only have so much friction. if you want to waste it all in a skid, be my guest, but a better thing to do is let up a bit on the brakes so you are no longer skidding, and use what little traction you have to STEAR YOUR VEHICLE. luck, experience, and common sense all play a part in how much stopping you will need and how much stearing you will need, but next time you find yourself in a skid into oncomming traffic think about it.
Thursday, December 30, 2004
snow driving
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4 comments:
panic. i hate it. i'm sure that panic is partly to blame for the tracker's behavior. personally, i know i am not a quick thinker so i avoid doing things that i knkow will involve quick thinking to avoid getting hurt, like today i am at home =).
last night i was driving through town about 60mph on the freeway and noticed a flash in my headlights about 10 feet up (milla seconds) and it was something bloody and larger then a cinderblock. I just froze up. i didn't reach for the brake, or brace for impact. had it been a cinderblock 2 feet to the left i would have smashed into it doing 60 and certainly NOT in the mode to deal with it.
it surprised alodia, and it scared me as i realized there was nothing i could have done about it had we hit it, and i probably would not have handled it very well in 'frozen' mode.
i'm glad the suzuki turned out ok and that nothing hit you head on. i'm telling you - get a crash helmet and role bar. that road is dangerous to carson.
there are times that I have thought about wearing my nice shoe motorcycle helmet in the car. I get alot of laughs, but if I survive when 'they' hit me i'll get last laugh.
I saw some spider spikes in action today. I must say, if I can get a set for 100$ or less, i'm buying.
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