winter – The Wise Drive

Q: Driving on the freeway, my friend and I were following a semi that was divesting itself of its trailer top ice and snow load all over the road. Staying back for a few miles we decided it was done and okay to pass if we did so quickly – wrong. As we passed, the hood and windshield took a huge hit of slabs of snow/ice obscuring vision briefly. We truly thought it would come through the windshield. Fortunately nothing was damaged but our nerves. Is there a law about semi trucks and their trailer top loads of snow? Do we call 911 to report them? It seems incredibly dangerous!

A: You’re fortunate that the ice didn’t come through the windshield. A quick internet search will provide you with some examples of people who didn’t fare as well as you. Ice chunks flying off cars can be dangerous, and we are, as drivers, responsible for whatever falls or flies off our vehicles, whether we put it there or the weather did. Continue reading “Watch Out For Flying Ice Chunks”

As I watched my neighbor scrape ice from her windshield I realized it’s probably time to review the topic of winter driving. Mount Baker ski area has opened, the freezing level is dropping, and we’ve already had some flooded roads. Here comes winter.

If you’ve ever had a conversation with someone from Minnesota about winter driving, you’ve probably heard the ridicule about how Washington doesn’t have a “real” winter. And that’s exactly the problem. In wintery parts of the country people prepare for the inevitable ice and snow. Here we often get caught off-guard by a storm system that blows in, makes a mess of things, and then melts away two days later. And unlike places that stay frozen for weeks at a time, we have weather that fluctuates between just below and just above freezing, creating the slippery hazard of a thin layer of water on top of a layer of ice. I’ve seen a parked car slide off the road in those conditions. Continue reading “Winter Driving Review”