My wife and I were all set to drive to Cincinnati to see her parents for Christmas. We had rented a car and were taking our elderly adopted toy "choodle" with us. We had a car harness and all that. I noted that Christmas Day was supposed to be all of about 12 degrees! Our dog, Peanut, shivers when it's 70 degrees outside. So we were taking blankets, her heated bed, and other goodies.

While I was packing the rental, my wife checked out The Weather Channel. Bad news. Her home town was being hammered. We thought it might blow over in a day. So we'd leave a day later. No such luck. This record-breaking snowstorm was predicted to last three days! After thinking it over carefully, we decided to abort until after Christmas. We'd leave on the 26th.

We made the necessary call to her parents, who are in their 70s and were looking forward to our visit. They agreed, telling us, "Don't come." Okay, we'll cool it for awhile. We decided to wait until the 26th. We also had to call our motel and plans had been made -- you know, the whole nine yards. Everything had to be pushed back.

The appointed day arrived. The car was packed. Peanut had her winter sweater on, and her car harness was strapped to a seat belt. She was in the back seat. We had read of pets being killed by front passenger air bags. I even warmed up the car before we stowed her aboard. Off we went.

All was well until we got to Ohio. Fifteen miles into Ohio, we hit a snowsquall. Then we saw a terrible accident. A car flipped over on its roof and turned 180 degrees. Cars were splayed out off the road all over. We hit the same patch of icy road, and began fishtailing and sliding. My wife was driving by then. She's a damn good driver and she kept us on the road. I said let's get off at the first exit offering a motel. She indicated that was fine by her.

We ended up sleeping in a fleabag motel that had not been redecorated since 1960. Yikes. We didn't use the shower, we didn't undress, and because I insisted we take our sleeping bags, we were able to sleep on top of the beds in our bags. Peanut slept with us. The floor was too cold and she was too excited, as tiny dogs are apt to be. We got about 3 hours of sleep.

Peanut slept fine!

We also decided to get the hell out of Ohio and drive back home. We called her parents as well as the motel and they understood. We will visit in the spring or early summer.

Sometimes there is wisdom in knowing when to call it quits and go home.

-- Craig

I once read a story in a flying magazine about an organization called the Coward's Club. The guy writing it was about to fly in deteriorating weather. When he expressed misgivings at the small airport office, someone said something along the lines, "Wazzamadda, chicken?"

The guy reaches into his wallet and pulls out his Coward's Club membership card. "Yeah, buddy, I am, and here's the proof!" He didn't fly that day. Reminds me of that old Irish saying: "It's better to be a coward for a minute than dead for the rest of your life."

Well said. To quote the late, great Jerome Lester Howard (better known as Curly of The Three Stooges), "I don't wanna be dead. There's no future in it!"

On the other hand, people do drive regularly in winter conditions; it's not automatically suicidal to do so. Some of the factors involved here were probably:

1. I'll bet you didn't have winter tires; possibly (depending on where you live) you didn't even have "all-season radials". I drove for 10 years in Calgary winters on all-season radials, but this year I finally decided I was just pushing my luck for no reason and got Blizzacs put on in November.

2. If the weather conditions were highly unusual, the majority of drivers probably didn't know how to react. Remember that the speed limit is a maximum, not a minimum. Don't do 70 on the freeway when it's covered with ice and snow and you've got summer tires on. If you're worried about getting hit from behind by some moron who doesn't realize snow and ice are slippery, turn on your lights and, if necessary, put on your 4-way flashers. Watch the other drivers giving you the finger as they charge past you, and be polite and wave to them later on as you pass them in the ditch <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> Make sure you remove all snow and ice from your headlights and tail-lights as well. If you have a brightly coloured car, consider brushing the snow off the whole car; no point wasting that bright red, high visibility paint job when you need it most. (Of course, most Canadians - including myself <img src="/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" /> - get kind of blase about this sort of thing and only clear enough snow to be able to see out.)

3. The road crews may not have had the equipment to deal with the weather conditions. It's a standing joke in Canada that Victoria, BC (which has a very mild climate compared to the rest of the country) can be shut down by even a light dusting of snow that isn't enough to build a decent-sized snowman (snow person?). Not because they don't know how to drive in winter, but because the snow-clearing equipment they have just isn't adequate to deal with something that only happens every ten years.

Winter driving is not that difficult if you have the right equipment and are used to driving in snow and ice. But if not, then you're right - hole up for the night, then turn around and go home.

I'd have snow tires but we have no place to keep them. We live in a townhome with minimal storage.

I can drive in bad weather.

The person behind me, however, in a van full of screaming kids, drinking a Wawa coffee, talking into a cell phone, steering with one hand, and wildly gesticulating with the other hand...well, I've seen more than one of them rearend a suddenly stopped column of traffic at 60 mph because they weren't paying attention.

I just stay off the road now.

There are too many inattentive, stressed, rushed drivers out there.

Craig, I'm with you. I've been rear-ended TEN times in the past ten years. I am not a fast or erratic driver, & I try to communicate what I'm doing to other drivers, so I won't surprise them. But it doesn't always work. As you pointed out, many drivers are just aren't paying attention to the job at hand.

Sue

My experience is the same as Susan’s.

From the time I worked as a chauffeur in Chicago working my way through school, through my thirty year carrier as a communications engineer, and now in my retirement, the majority of the accidents I have been involved in have been rear end collisions. Most of these collisions have occurred while my vehicle was stopped at a traffic control device or parked.

Cars today do not have the bulk of metal that the old Detroit Iron had to protect the occupants or the vehicle in such accidents. Consequently I have long ago changed my mode of transportation to heavy suvs and pickup trucks. In addition, I have changed the tin foil bumpers the OEM provided to half inch thick steel specially design bumpers, front and rear. The rear bumper is equipped with a heavy Class V two and one half inch square receiver. Into this receiver, I have either a solid steel bar with a sacrificial hitch ball or my regular Easy Lift Hitch. What this does is to concentrate the majority of the impact of a rear end collision to the bar or hitch. With such a system, it is like taking your hand and running it into the point of a knife. Very little damage is done to the knife but your hand will be penetrated. Usually the offending bumper is bent into a “V” shape penetrating its own grill, radiator, air-conditioning condenser, and oil cooler, if equipped, then the fan, and finally the engine block. In extreme cases, the block is cracked. Those vehicle with mid or rear mounted engines, have the their front suspension destroyed as well as most of their sheet metal. In all but two of these accidents, the offending vehicle was totaled. So far my vehicles only needed inspection and a new coat of paint on the bumper. With the advent of cell phones the frequency of these accidents are on the increase.

I won’t say the my bumpers are a judge and jury but so far I am happy with the verdict!