Surviving bad decisions

As part of our family holiday road trip, my wife and I woke up before dawn the day after Christmas to load the van and the kids and head to New York City. After checking the weather I suggested that we should delay the trip for a day so as to avoid the projected road conditions. My wife scoffed that we were much better at driving in snow than any East Coast liberal pansies and the weatherman is always wrong anyway. Reluctantly, I agreed that we could depart but that I would reserve the right to exercise my safety veto and spend the night at a hotel outside the area of the projected blizzard.

My wife drove our minivan for the first six hours and I took over as the weather turned. The next several hours were marked by reduced speeds and visibility, but conditions weren't that bad. All lanes were open, it was safe to pass and I was able to keep our speed at 50 MPH without any concern.

We stopped for fuel and dinner at my pre-determined decision point. I called my family in New York City to get a first-hand account of conditions and consulted the news and the weather map carefully on my iPhone. Based on what I could tell, conditions were not projected to get much worse than what we had already passed through. We decided to press on, for a projected 9pm arrival. I kept the wheel.

Conditions continued to worsen markedly the further East we went, and within half an hour I started looking for a place to pull over. We were down to 30 MPH or less in single file, with other lanes either difficult or impossible to use due to poor or nonexistent plowing. We passed several towns without any indication of a place to spend the night, and the off-ramps started looking much worse. It seemed like it was only a blink of an eye before we saw vehicles that had tried to get off the highway in the ditch or stuck in snow drifts.

We didn't see many plows, those that we did see were being driven grossly recklessly, in several cases swerving deliberately to run cars off the road. They were successful at least twice. The plows were driving in echelon, at very slow speeds and long intervals. After two hours of witnessing some harrowing experiences all the plows pulled off the road simultaneously. We saw no more plows actually working to keep the roads passable after that point. Since none of the plows had touched any of the offramps, we stayed with our group in single file, at speeds generally between 20-30 MPH.

As unpleasant as this was, it got worse. Traction and visibility went into the toilet, and we saw semis and SUVs pull insane stunts to try to skip ahead of the line. I worked constantly to avoid getting rammed while trying to stay where the traffic had made the snow passable. With nowhere to pull over, all I could do was push through. The ramp to I280 was closed, so the Lincoln Tunnel was out. We made for the George Washington Bridge.

By the time we reached the GWB at 11pm, we'd seen countless State Troopers stuck in snow, dozens of plows sitting by the side of the road doing nothing, and too many other vehicles stuck in snow drifts and ditches to count. I was hopeful that New York City streets would be better, but I was wrong.

There was a seven car pileup -- with two Port Authority Police cruisers wrecked -- on the ramp to the West Side Highway. Another, ten car pileup was just beyond it. Unable to get on the highway we were able to get onto Riverside Drive.

Immediately I started looking to get East, away from the river and therefore hopefully away from the wind, some of the snow, and the huge snowdrifts. Our first several attempts to get East were thwarted by steep hills and poor traction. We got stuck about seven times, four of them necessitating that I get out and use my show shovel (an old two-piece aluminum Voile that I had almost forgotten) to dig us out. We came within a hair of spending the night at 148th and Riverside Drive, but with plenty of fuel and the van upright it could have been a lot worse.

By chance we came up behind a garbage truck fitted with a snowplow, and followed it East. Things got better as we got away from the river. After that, it was a tense half-hour of carefully running red lights to stay with the plows while meandering more-or-less in the right direction. We hit some streets that had been recently plowed and were able to get to my mother's house.

Fortunately, my family all turned out with snow shovels to clear a parking space for us.

We made it without getting hurt or putting a scratch on the van, but staying home a day would have been a lot better. As a second choice, staying at the decision-point hotel for a day would have been a good choice.

I had enough foresight to have my full kit in the car including the snow shovel, and I was very conservative about fuel. Also, I have a lot of experience driving in bad conditions. Having the skills and tools to survive the situation unscathed turned out to be a very good thing, but I'd have much preferred to exhibit better judgment about going into that storm in the first place.

I think many of us can tell similar tales. Hindsight is 20/20, as they say. I'm glad you had back up items like a shovel. Could you have spent a comfortable night in the van if it came to that?

That's a white knuckle drive. I've done a few myself. Good job making it through with your 'shiny side up.'

Snow storms are tricky. By the time you suspect you're in a pickle, it's not easy to turn around without getting stranded.

One thing that may be of interest: In poor traction conditions, with all-season (a.k.a. 3-season) tires, and at low speeds, I've found that dropping the tire pressure by a third gives you a lot more "grab." This is for emergencies only, and is *not* safe for regular highway speeds; don't be dumb. But it has gotten me out of a few tight spots.

We had plenty of clothes, food, water, and gas, so we'd have been as comfortable as two adults and three small children could have been. If there had been a safe place to pull over I'd have done exactly that.

Wow - right into the belly of the Boxing Day blizzard-beast! Good that you learned a lesson without paying a high price for it (other than stress).

When I was younger and living on Mt. Hood, I routinely drove in conditions with a '69 Mustang (and tire chains at least in the trunk) that I wouldn't now with a much more capable vehicle (and better-honed sense of mortality).

Live and learn, if we're lucky.

During DC's "Snowpocalypse" last February, my car did not budge for two weeks. Decided there was just no place I needed to be bad enough to take the car (helps to live near a subway).

All your experience and preparations (and a bit of luck) paid off in a safe, and no doubt joyful, arrival. Congratulations.

I think the lesson to be learned is that we all are subject to the infamous "getthereits." The desire to arrive at our planned destination on time as planned subtly distorts our judgments of risk. I got the impression from your post that you were already having a bad feeling at your decision point, but your checking of all the reports convinced you that it was OK to go on despite that bad feeling. Every time I've ignored those feelings, I've gotten into trouble.

My winter driving philosophy is that no matter how capable my car, how skillful I am at winter driving, I am no match for those who don't know what they are doing, cause an accident and stop traffic dead. You can't dive over the cars in front of you or, in many cases, even turn around. You are simply trapped there for the duration. Happily, you avoided that.

Mr. Magnet,

I too headed directly for the blizzard on that same day (my birthday; thank you very much). My destination was the middle of Long Island (Holbrook). I was coming from Upstate NY and knew I had a 4-hour sprint in front of me. I wanted to get on the road at 7 a.m. based on the predictions of the "darts and dice guys". We actually hit the road at 7:20 a.m. We managed above-posted speed limits for a good portion of the trip. We were good until about 20 minutes after we hit the L.I.E. It started to deteriorate pretty steadily. When we arrived with about 3/4" of ice on the front of the car with two holes were melted by the heat of the headlight. I made the executive decision to come home Tuesday instead of Monday.

MoBOB

You can now say you have experience! Will help you better relate forecasts, what you see on radar, TV, etc, to help you make better decisions later.

"... checking of all the reports convinced you that it was OK to go on despite that bad feeling. Every time I've ignored those feelings, I've gotten into trouble."

Yes, me, too!

I read that 'intuition', a 'hunch', 'that bad feeling' is your subconscious recognizing the truth and trying to keep you safe, bypassing the regular reasoning process. Funny how often it's right!

Despite ignoring your misgivings, you did very well.

I've never heard of snowplow drivers acting like that!

Sue

Thanks!



I know that trick, but I wasn't carrying a compressor to re-air the tires after. I'm going to think about putting one in each car.

I think it's pretty common knowledge in NYC that this was due to Union labor disputes. There are stories, videos and pictures aplenty of plow drivers acting out of sorts (ramming cars).

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/sanit_filthy_snow_slow_mo_qH57MZwC53QKOJlekSSDJK

This is a lesson that I periodically relearn.



Nor I. If they'd been driving at a reasonable speed or more closely together it would have been a lot safer for everyone. It also would have been nice if they'd kept at it. These were not the NYC plows but the NJDOT plows.

i guess that answers the question i ask myself when i see the shots on the evening news of snowbound cars and massive pile ups,some people will do anything to get where their going.

I'm glad everyone made it.

A big issue is that such events tend to have a point-of-no-return followed by a long lead up to the comeuppance and then a tragic end. After the first stop there were fewer and fewer points where you could change your tactics, stop, or turn around. Off ramps were closed. Places to stop nonexistent. You ended up in a line of cars and trucks getting deeper into it with every passing minute and no way to take a break or reconsider. The highway to hell has many on-ramps but few off-ramps.

I suspect that the people taking risks to get to the head of the line were just this side of panic. Even as they would all likely tell you they were perfectly calm. They see themselves moving too slow to beat the snow and see themselves getting trapped. The 'need' to go faster takes priority. Even as getting to the head of the line does no good. But they feel the need to 'do something'. What they are missing is that they are one blown tire, or unseen road hazard away from triggering a pileup.

A multi-car, flaming pileup on a highway in a blizzard is not how I want to go. The crashing, the fire, the mangled bodies, then the cold, and silent punctuated by crying because nobody is on their way any time soon. After a while, silence.

I'm always a bit skittish about situations where I have to repeatedly double-down to make it. In this case it worked out.

A few years ago, we were in a similar situation and I decided to stop driving and stay at a fleabag motel, and if they didn't have room, we would have stayed in the parking lot of the motel. It turns BAD fast in snow.

like Martin we pulled off in a storm.on the way back from a spring trip to the Mammoth Caves we were hit by a heavy snow storm near Chicago.for nice retired Minnesota folks it was strange to be at a motel where the office was behind a small glass window with a tray to pass money thru---but the point is that with fast cars and interstates you can go from spring to winter in a couple hours and find yourself unprepared.

Probably also related to the tendency of people to start walking faster and faster when they first suspect that they are lost out on the trail, and a major reason behind the "hug a tree" instructions many kids get about getting lost out in the woods.

The hypothetical scenario you described reminds me of the 100-car "pileup" (well, "only" about 25 cars actually collided in the whiteout conditions, from what I read) in North Dakota last week. Not a good situation to be in.

Actually, this story sort of reminds me of the subway riders stuck on the A train in Queens in that they were also basically stuck because they had no options. They could've left the train, since it was at a station, but there was nowhere really to go. So, they just kept doing what they were doing, which in their case meant sitting on the train, while on this case, it meant creeping along into the blizzard with all the other cars.

Glad things turned out OK.

I hit this storm on both ends. Was out in Idaho at a family funeral. Had to leave the day after it started snowing there. In the 250 odd mile drive from Idaho to SLC we hit snow, freezing rain, sleet, rain, fog, more snow and more rain. The next day our flight was slightly delayed as they had to deice the plane. Got home ok. Traffic was actually worse in Raleigh than it was in SLC even with the weather.

Then it hit here the day after Christmas, started about 11pm Christmas night actually. We got 9 inches of snow more or less. Of course, being the South, everything closed. Better news was that it mainly melted during the next three days.

Both DW and I can drive in snow, having learned as kids. It's not her or my abilities I worry about, it's the natives lack of abilities. Watched one guy do three 360s as he decided to pass on a bridge - at least he hit no one else, tho his car was totalled once he stopped.

I can prepare and be ready, it's the morons who will kill ya.

Been there and done that, said I would never set out out a family trip in bad weather again! Like you I am often pressured by family/friends to travel long distances during poor conditions (weather or sometimes just lack of rest) to attend an important function. I have lately been successful in convincing people to postpone the trip and have hopefully educated my teenaged kids of the danger.

Glad your family arrived safe and nice to hear of your preparations if things got worse.

Mike

Driving is very much a cooperative exercise. You don't set the lights, maintain the roads, enforce, or fail to enforce, the rules, or drive the other cars. What others do or don't do can get you hurt or set you up to hurt yourself.

I wouldn't be too emphatic about your own skill set, not that I doubt your abilities, I'm sure you both are both skilled and experienced, but everyone claims to have special abilities. To the point that an assumption of exceptional skill or ability is, in it self, a sign of impending doom. On the other hand there are times when it can be assumed the very non-exceptional will be out on the road in great numbers. New years eve is widely considered 'amateur night' for drunk driving. Other times may share that distinction.

Having driven through the same storm as it went from MN to Chicago the day before Christmas, I feel your pain.

ON the trip to Chicago it took an extra 3 hours to get to where we were going. Luckaly the truck had just gotten new tires, and the 4x4 is very effective. My normal gear covered anything we would need had we needed to stay or help ourselves out of a ditch.

It is great that you could get through it as effectivly as you did.

Another case for our way of thought, and proof that you can't rely on "the system" to keep the roads clear for our travels.

This was, for lack of a better discription, and unusually "slippery" snowstorm.

Most snow we get around here is fairly wet and heavy. This was a light powder, which would make for a great day skiing, but not for driving.

I drive a Subaru Outback wagon which is usually pretty surefooted in the snow. For the first time in five years of ownership, I had all four wheels let go on me while I was coming around a corner (responding to the firehouse for an EMS call, no less). I was only going 20 miles an hour (maybe less), but the car did a 270 and ended up facing backwards in the middle of the road I had turned on to. No one else was on the road, and I didn't hit anything, so no harm done. I turned around and continued on my way, even slower than before!

Thankfully, most people around here stayed off the roads. We got plowed out pretty quick, leading me to believe there's some truth to the allegations that NYC suffered from a wildcat job action.

Be safe everyone!

Subaru = 4wd drive, right?

To me, it seems like pretty normal 4wd behavior. A GREAT asset both for handling curves and chugging snow - but when it slips, it slips without the pre-warning signs of conventional 2wd.

I'm glad it worked out OK.

I actually recommend anyone to go play with their car on an empty and icy parking lot, if they can find any. Braking hard and provoking a skid is a great way to prepare for winter. And great fun

Yup. 4WD. Usually quite predictable, however. Understeers when entering a turn, but adding some throttle mid-turn brings on oversteer pretty easily - and usually quite controllably. In this particular case, I wasn't trying to do anything fancy, but it just let go. I was surprised, but my track training kicked in and I stopped fighting it and enjoyed the ride. (The rule of thumb I was taught driving on a track is "in a spin? Both feet in." I.E. push in the clutch to disengage the engine, and lock up the wheels. Then enjoy the ride and brace for impact )

I agree wholeheartedly that you should take your car out to an empty, snow-covered lot to see how it skids. I tried to get my wife to do it with me in this storm, but she was scared. I did do an intentional "panic stop" to show her how the anti-lock breaks work, and intentionally induced both over- and under-steer to show her the difference, and how to recover. There's only so much you can learn, however, until you drive through it yourself!

Subies have AWD, which handles somewhat differently than traditional 4WD. Different AWD technologies handle differently from one another as well.



The worse the traction, the better. A day of this kind of practice will teach you things that are a lot more painful and expensive to learn on roads.

Excellent advice. Remember to turn off traction control / anti-skid to get a feel for how the vehicle really handles in worst-case conditions.

Always fun too
We used to use the DMV parking lot when I was in college, and one classmate the police came up and asked what he was doing and he said he was practicing snow driving as he was from whatever state south where they get much less snow and they were cool with it despite all the circular tracks in the lot.
I've found that I can still our brake ABS, the fancy sensors and computers can't threshold brake like a foot can and that AWD is no where near as good as old fachioned level on the floor 4x4.

My grandpa ran a towing company back when tow bans were much rarer. I remember being out with him on some pretty nasty nights trying to keep the interstates clear for the DOT and Highway Patrol. He always claimed the number one thing 4WD and anti-lock brakes were good for was getting people stuck where most tow trucks can't get them. The number 2 thing was ringing up very large towing bills for the trucks that could go get them.

As noted above, you need to understand the limitations of your equipment and your skill with it. Practicing in the local parking lots is always a good way to warm up for winter driving.

A couple of additions to all the good inputs above:
- Slow and easy is the key to driving in bad winter conditions
- If it was hard to get moving it will be much harder to stop (or steer)
- Do not ever, ever stop on or near the main portion of the road/interstate
- In icy conditions the shoulders and median often have much better traction
- Curves are tricky
--- flat curves - go slow, really really slow
--- banked curves - go fast enough to not slide out the bottom
------ usually about half the posted speed
- Weather forecasts cannot be trusted - if in doubt stay home or pull off early
- The first snow falls/ice storms are the worst since everyone is out of practice
- Driving through snow drifts that come over the hood is contra-indicated
(and a whole lot of fun under the right conditions)

Final Note: I drive a Jeep and haven't gotten stuck where the tow trucks can't get to me yet!

-Eric

Around here, a day (4 hours) at "slippery tracks" was compulsory training for getting my driver's license. That track (expoxy with water) is more slippery than most surfaces you'll ever encounter in the winter - think a skating field with water on it and no winter tires. But no play - hard practice: Stop the car as fast as you can without spinning, going through curves at higher and higher speeds until you slip and then manage that skid and so on. The contents of the course has probably shifted a bit with the introduction of modern electronics into the car, but the basic idea is the same.

The funny thing - the effect of that course is highly debated. It focuses on mastering the situation. It makes (some) males feel overly confident and thus taking more chances.


Safe winter driving is not really all that much about how to control a skid - it is about reducing speed so you not only avoid that skid, but have the ability to stop or steer away from anything unexpected, such as a car or a person blocking the lane.

Of course, if you're lucky enough to have proper race track training (I'm a bit envious here then you will have learned a lot of the same things.


And I must say that proper winter tires really does make ALL the difference in the world. Really. But even with winter tires, conditions are some times simply so bad your options are extremely limited. Drive accordingly.

that's something i wish we had here in Minnesota.even if was just to try out and not part of the license test.we had 100's of crashes at the first snowstorm that could have be avoided if people knew how their car handled on snow and ice.i have a SUV and a big front wheel drive car,a V6 Plymouth,and i had a couple dicey moments with both of them and i,as my Grandson would say,drive like a old man.