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BPAL Madness!
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Icy Roads

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smallvoice

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My college has classes that begin as early as 6:50 am. The highway to get there is the main highway between the nearby cities. Wouldn't you think that it would be top priority to get cleared off? That and, you know, the streets that run by the college?

 

Excuse my mouth, but holy fuck.

 

Three lanes, and I'm in the middle one. There's a semi and an SUV up ahead and to my right, a car a ways ahead of me, and a truck to my left- and a car behind me. All the sudden, the SUV hits an icy patch and starts veering for the side of the road... but she doesn't. She panicks and starts trying to straighten out the car- in the process, crossing all three lanes and circling more than 350 degrees... and lands smack in the middle of my lane, so that I'm heading for the side of her car, and I'm slowing down and praying that she will figure something out and get moved, and it hits me that she's so freaked out that she's not going to be able to do anything, so I have to do something or hit her car, so at about 30 mph (which I've managed to slow down to, on our 70mph highway), I slip into the right lane at literally the last second, and was shaking and trying not to sob the rest of the way to school... but I didn't wreck my car, and I didn't kill her, or anyone else, but it was SO scary. I don't want to go in tomorrow unless it's all melted away. ALL of it. Dude, that is so scary. I almost threw up. I was so freaked out the entire time I was driving home, too.

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Yikes! The dreaded SUV spin -- I've seen more SUVs and 4-wheel drive pickups spin and do crazy things on ice, because the drivers assume that their vehicles can't slide or spin. They drive too fast for conditions and then they spin out. I have an all-wheel-drive vehicle, but my previous vehicle was the proverbial "hog on ice" (that term is so odd) and I had to be thinking all the time when I drove on ice or snow so I wouldn't get stuck. Those patterns are imprinted in my brain, so I don't drive my Subaru like a nut, and I've actually had SUV drivers honk at me to go faster through 6 inches of snow because they know I'm effectively in an SUV. Dummies. :lol:

 

I'm glad that you didn't get in an accident -- running into an SUV would not have been easy on your car or you! Those near misses are so heart-stopping, and then the fear and relief that sets in right away is terrible. I hope the roads have thawed out today!!!

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Glad you didn't slide or get smushed!

 

I don't know where you live, but we've had unusually icy weather here in Texas, the worst since we moved here. I woke up Wednesday morning to icy sheets instead of roads (Tuesday night they were predicting we'd see "maybe a flurry" :lol:) but I drove to work anyway. I saw nary a treated road on the entire drive in, even through downtown. I'm in an Altima :eek:

 

Texas is totally deluded in that when they do "treat" the roads and bridges, they use sand instead of ice melt or salt, presumably to save money. Um, sand doesn't melt ice :lol: I didn't realize Ohio was so advanced because they use all sorts of ice-melting technology to keep the roads safe. Then people here are shocked at the accident rate! Shocked!

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:lol:

 

I'm glad you're OK! You handled the potential accident perfectly.

 

Things are starting to get back to normal here in Portland, though my bus did have a few heart stopping moments skidding around from a hill stop.

 

My parents are in Texas. They sent photos of the icicles hanging off their gutters.

 

Ugh. Office cold (it was 55... I think it's up to 62 now). Can't think right now.

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Oh my god, my heart stopped when I was reading this...thank goodness you are ok!! I remember my first winter here...my first snowstorm...I had to work late and luckily there was no one left on the road, but I think I did like negative 2 mph the whole way home...and I STILL ended up skidding into other lanes. Thank god no one was in them.

 

Seriously, STAY HOME if the roads are like that. Maybe that is not the right answer, but to my way of thinking, it is the ONLY answer.

 

Be safe!

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I love you guys! Seriously, you don't know how much I needed to hear all that, because out here, even my husband has been like, "You just need to shake it off." which is totally wierd and also not very comforting.

 

I did stay home, and it snowed some more. I missed a math test and turning in a paper, but I don't even care in the slightest.

 

It's so strange, because we have snowplows and ice melty things, and there's just no real excuse for the roads being as bad as they were that late in the morning.

 

And... wow, sand to combat icy roads? That's so bizarre. The only thing I can think is that maybe if the ice is thin enough, the sand will break it down and help provide traction somehow?

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