How to Drive on Slick Roads
Slow down and learn when not to brake. Yeah, that’s pretty much it.
A good portion of our winter crashes could be avoided if the driver got his (hey Rebecca, notice I didn’t write “her”) foot off the brake and steered around the obstacle. Unfortunately, this goes completely against human nature. When faced with a sudden need to stop, most of us panic-stomp the brakes while yanking upward on the steering wheel for added measure. But since steering requires wheels that turn, we’ve just turned our car into a toboggan.
If you start skidding, pry your foot off the brake and turn in the direction of the skid. In other words, if your rear end is trying to catch you on the right, turn toward the right. If you’re lucky enough to get some control back, steer gently toward a safe target – and brake gently if you can control yourself. Sometimes that means taking a curb instead of an on-coming truck.
To see this principle in action watch this amazing YouTube video of a series of slow-motion crashes that occurred last week in Bountiful Utah. It starts slow, but Wow!