Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Close Call on Ice

Been to that rodeo one night in a Ford Fiesta in northern Wisconsin in freezing slush. The light weight little thing got caught in a frozen rut. Countersteer while looking straight into the pasture that was on my left. Things snapped to the right and looking at some trees but now not quite so sideways. I don't remember how many back and forths happened before I got it slowed down and straight, seemed like a LOT. Pulled over to the shoulder to start myself breathing again.

Stupid, knew I was on the edge. Should've pulled over and let the semi and other vehicles go around. They were heavy enough to not get trapped by a slush rut.

I thought that was some pretty hotshit driving. Nice drift!

That's what I was thinking...
Did a good job staying in the groove all the way through the curve with the added bonus of spraying a couple of people. Had they hit a dry patch it wouldn't have ended well.

Last time I tried that stunt there was a coke delivery truck going in the opposite direction. I got back in my lane with a second to spare. Truck driver's eyes were as big as saucers.

Driving too fast for road conditions.

I agree with the 'slow down' slogan at the end of the video. The speed limit was designed for the roads in good conditions. When it's icy, no tire is going to make it as good as dry with summer tires. Just not going to happen.

Good post

I’m pretty sure you are attempting humor, but fail.

Tow driver would have been severely injured if not killed. Perhaps the cop too.

Driver had plain dumbass luck to not only avoid them, but also not have oncoming traffic like there often is on that 2- lane stretch.

Pretty good odds they were drunk driving like that.

Driving like that doesn't take being drunk- just being distracted or complacent; two things you can't afford when driving-especially in chitty conditions.

I did accident investigation and reconstruction exclusively for 8 years. My biggest killer was a distracted driver. I had my share of drunks and drugged drivers but the biggest common denominator was being distracted- usually by a passenger. Now it is with phones!

Just going by the the of year and the prevalence of DD in the police blotter reports, but agree with your point.

Multitasking. Yeah, right!

Multi ton deadly weapon is what it is, and members here do it all the time.

It’s like carrying got, safety off, finger on trigger while watching the stars when walking. Someone is gonna get hurt sometimes. Not always, so that makes it ok.

To my well trained eyes the driver was carrying too much speed into the corner, saw the tow truck and police car and tried to dump his speed too quickly. This started a skid and then an over correction that saved the original skid but carried him to the outside of the corner where he then held on for dear life. That tow driver was extremely lucky to be alive, and hopefully learned new vigilance in watching all directions of traffic.

Studded tires would have helped, but speed and a panic slow down was the cause. It’s surprising how many cars stay on the road during terrible conditions even without studs if they drive cautiously and don’t try to squeeze the last 5K from a set of summer tires.

It wouldn't surprise me if everyone involved needed to change their skivvies after that. Like others said, the SUV came in a bit hot and lost it coming into the curve. Talk about luck.

I've seen plenty of that, both living in the PNW but also the many years I lived in MN and traveled the entire upper Midwest from the UP of Michigan, Wis, Iowa, Nebraska and the Dakotas....

I hated in the early 80s when GM et al started selling FWD cars, and Goodyear was selling those Tiempo all season tires...
Car salesmen and tire salesmen were telling people that those product would turn the roads into summer, their traction was so good.....yeah right up to the second they left the road in a big skid....hwy ditches and medians were filled with them every darn snow storm.....

With SUVs its worse in the PNW... people who live in the I 5 valleys, can drive to the snow, so they don't drive in it every day... plus a lot of them are told with 4 WD or AWD they don't need to buy winter tires... their vehicles traction will go thru anything...
right up to the moment they leave the road....

Way back in 78 after I got off active duty, I got a seasonal job at the Post Office and was assigned to the main one in Everett WA, I lived 20 miles south in north Seattle....I went to college in New England and learned to drive in snow spending 5 years up there as a college student...Worked New Years eve of 1978-79... from like 8 PM to 7 AM....there was a major snow dump that night...

one the way home, I 5 was a ghost town that morning....plows hadn't been out too much at 7 AM....so 30 mph on the way home, after putting some weight in the back of my old 68 Volvo Wagon...and having snow tires on the rear.. I drove home...I still remember that very clearly.. because it was bright sunshine, clear blue sky, and in that 20 miles there were exactly 25 vehicles in the median abandoned, most of them wrecked... all but one of those vehicles were 4 WD large pickups, Surburbans etc...

People over confident, and driving way to fast for conditions....and in fact, I've seen too much of that stuff in the PNW, where the weather gets bad, and many of these idiots actually speed up instead of slow down... just itching to try and be macho and see exactly how 'good' their 4 WD or AWD is in bad weather....just plain stupid....

Someone I knew lost control on an overpass, went through the guard rail and landed on the inside shoulder of the freeway below. He was shaken up but essentially unhurt. He got out of the car and was thinking about his miraculous luck when he was struck by another car.

The driver of the other car was so fixated by what she saw that she drove right into him. Left him a paraplegic for life.

That dude that almost got hit needs some lessons in situational awareness too.

Twas cruising down the highway in the right lane one day in sloppy weather like that when a county sheriff cruiser went flying by me in the left lane. Next thing I know there's mud and snow flying up from the median, the cruiser sucked down into the middle of it. I pull off onto the shoulder and stop parallel to the cruiser, roll down the window and ask the boys inside if they're all right. They said yes, I asked em if they needed the roll of toilet paper I carried in my truck for emergencies. They weren't happy, I drove off on and my way.

Just around the corner from the site is a pull-out on the left side (per the video perspective) and no turning lane. You are on it before you realize it is there and in heavy traffic it has caused more than a death or three. I know many folks have complained, written letters, done all sorts of things but the State DOT refuses to put up so much as a warning sign...

The scariest I have witnessed was when a Wyoming Hwy Department snowplow truck right in front of us did a couple of 360s down into the median on I-80 between Rock Springs and Rawlins. I was driving and my two passengers were Wyoming natives. When I expressed amazement, the guy riding shotgun just shrugged and said, "Well, it is the 19th of January."

Forgot to mention the perpetual skid marks in the south-bound lane there...