PSA: Icy Roads are Slippery

[ellyssian]

In this society of warning labels, idiots, and lawyers, I feel I must comment on this:

Driving on icy roads may be hazardous to your health, especially if you think you're invincible, driving an SUV, and/or are talking on the cell phone with your best friend and oh, isn't this the most important conversation ever and, like, who put that tree in the middle of the road, and why am I upside down?

I had intended to give prior warning that Forest Road was still covered in ice, despite side roads coming from it having been cleared, and even larger roads (with lower speed limits) leading to it also being cleared, but hey: there's bumpy, white, packed snow and ice patches all over. It should be obvious.

Of course, the reason I kept thinking I should post a warning was that every time I've been on the road since our little bit of snowfall, someone in an SUV seems to fly down the road in one direction or the other, sneering at me for driving slowly. It was just a matter of time.

Deb just reported a mini-van is in the trees, just downstream from us, with emergency vehicles of all shapes and sizes in attendance.

Comments

aha...

[jenjiyana.livejournal.com]

yeah that would be my mother. She doesnt talk on a cell while driving but she drives like a maniac. She bought an SUV just because she likes to be "higher than everyone else". I told her that she is an environmental disaster and that she deserves to pay a fortune in gas. (they're other car is a fairly brand new Ford pickup - the big kind).

Did I mention she's actually blind in one eye? Never go to Salem County NJ. Trust me.

[snowy-owlet.livejournal.com]

There is nothing I can think of, barring an emergency, that is so important that I would drive like an idiot on an icy road. *shakes head*

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

If it's an emergency, it's even more reason to be extremely careful!

Don't remember if I mentioned the ambulance that went off the road near here a month or so ago (although, to be fair, that had nothing to do with the weather, and everything to do with a bear that was jay-walking...)

[snowy-owlet.livejournal.com]

That's an excellent point.

[mythweaver.livejournal.com]

Good gracious...people can drive like completely morons in snow...well, and any other weather condition too...*fumes* I'm not even going to get INTO the amount of times I was almost hit by someone.

[opakele.livejournal.com]

It truly terrifies me to drive when it snows. I'm good, it's everyone else. Braking on hills and wondering why they have no traction...zooming past only to have to slow behind the next sensible driver...waiting to slow before they get to the light...

It sounds like you are in a more rural area than I am. I don't know if that is better or not. Maybe rural drivers are a bit more understanding of conditions...city drivers suck.

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

Nope - lots o' them thar folks gots them big four-wheel drive rigs, and them's invincibibble, in thar own minds, leastwise...

[kk1raven.livejournal.com]

There's a lot of satisfaction in seeing someone go roaring past you on snowy or icy roads and then coming upon them after they've slid off the road.

I had to drive to Virginia in a blizzard a few years ago, and people were racing past me on the interstate going over Afton Mountain. I later saw at least half a dozen of them in the middle of the median barrier as I slowly crept along at a reasonable speed. I wanted to yell at them "see, this is what happens when you drive recklessly"

Why do SUV drivers think that possessing four wheel drive somehow makes their brakes work better?

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

Don't recall if I've mentioned about the first date I went on with Deb - it was a concert in Worcester in February, and there was a snowstorm - very light, pretty stuff.

We took it slow on the ride home, on route 20, which is somewhat of a scenic route in places - in other spots my brother and I loved it as kids, calling it "The Truck Route." We stopped and visited the Grist Mill at the Wayside Inn (aka Longfellow Inn) in Sudbury, got stuck, and then continued on our way.

We were in Wayland, and driving about 10-20 miles an hour, and one of those (then) brand-spankin' new-fangled Suzuki Pre-SUV's kept riding up on us, backing off, flashing high beams, and so on. As soon as I got to a place I could pull over, I did, and he zoomed past, single fingers blazing from both driver and passenger.

Next bend in the road, he was sitting up in a tree and his girlfriend - who, moments before, probably thought he was the coolest guy in the world - was yelling and screaming at him.

We smiled and waved, and drove off into the sunset.

Well, not really, it was 11pm or later, and we were going east not west... =)

[nhmetalchick.livejournal.com]

What about the idiots who get their car stuck sideways in the driveway between two houses?

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

That's just pure entertainment... no harm done!