Editorial

Put on the brakes

Most drivers, when confronted with a stretch of ice-covered pavement stretching across a bridge or down a hill, have the sense to slow down. Then there are some who, while behind the wheel of a four-wheel or all-wheel drive vehicle, blithely speed up, secure in their belief that their pricey option will keep them securely glued to the road no matter what the conditions.

Think again. And pay attention to this advice from Steven Cole Smith in Car and Driver: "When ice or snow first falls, it seems the majority of weather-related crashes are in four- and all-wheel-drive vehicles, because having all four wheels powered makes drivers think they are Mikko Hirvonen or Jari-Matti Latvala, when really they lack the skill to even pronounce those World Rally Championship drivers' names.

"The logic is, they say, 'My Ford Explorer will accelerate to 60 mph on the ice and snow; ergo, it has got to be OK to drive 60 mph on the ice and snow.' Fine, unless at some point you plan to turn or perhaps slow down. You must know the limitations of four- and all-wheel drive. Check out YouTube, and you'll see that going too fast on ice, even if you're Mikko Hirvonen or Jari-Matti Latvala, you'll crash."

A good set of all-season tires, says Popular Mechanics, is a better investment if you want to keep a car heading in the right direction on a slick glazed street.

And there's always the option of taking it easy when the streets are a mess. Pay no attention to that SUV that zooms by. Just wish its hapless driver luck in not ending up spinning in circles a quarter-mile down the road.

Editorial on 01/25/2016

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