Interesting morning...I did have...yup, yup...
Mother nature decided to pay us a visit over night and dump some snow on us. So when I woke up this morning, it was white everywhere, and the visibility was non-existant thanks to the high winds and blowing snow. That in itself, isn't too bad, but when you factor in the fact that the not even one snow plow or salter had gone over ANY main street, side street or highway...this poses a problem.
Now remember, it's early in the morning...I'm talking about not even 6am and I'm in my car driving my sister to work. And at that time there ain't too many vehicles out there or had been out there, so the streets are pretty much slick with ice and covered in snow. Everyone is driving anywhere between 30km/h to 50km/h...more often around 40km/h...(on a side note here....are people fucking stupid!!! It's the middle of fucking winter...WHERE THE HELL ARE YOUR SNOW TIRES????). Anyways, we had a few instances where even with snow tires on, the car at times still didn't want to grip the road, so we would slide just a little bit.
I drop my sister off at work and head to the highway to take it home like I always do. Everything is snow covered on the highway and everyone is pretty much going about 50km/h to 60km/h (normally the limit is 100km/h). I make my way to the express lanes to avoid the more cluttered collector lanes. Everyone is pretty much sticking to one lane of the four lanes (cleared because of the amount of traffic using only that lane). I stick to that lane until I had to move into the right outside lane that is the merging lane for me to go from the express to the collector's since my exit was coming up in about 2km.
I'm going roughly 55km/h and my back tire hits a particularly dense amount of snow in the lane and starts to slide. I take my foot off the accelerator immediately and steer the car out of the slide. As the car straightens out, the back end hits another creeping snow drift and sends the back end into a fish tail. My foot is still off of the accelerator (and no, I haven't touched the brakes) and I try to correct the fish tail slide that the car is doing. I drift out into the lane to my left towards another car that is in the next lane from there (still sliding) when the back suddenly hits a slick patch and I spin out. I watch helplessly as the car spins towards the center median. As I'm sliding towards the median, my front bumper comes within a foot of hitting it and the back end slides to a stop with me being parallel to that median and now facing on-coming traffic.
My heart is trying to beat itself out of my chest, but I was extremely thankful that I didn't hit neither another car or the median. Seeing a block of traffic coming my way, I knew I had to turn my car around and continue on my way. I turn and back away from the median and notice a pick-up truck coming up the lane I'm in. I notice he's slowing down quite a bit away from me which is slowing the traffic behind him. Because of them, they blocked the traffic enough for me to continue reversing and turning my car around. As soon as I'm facing in the right direction, I slowly work my way back up to speed and in my proper lane. I hit a few more rough patches where the car tries to slide again, but I finally make it out of the express lanes and am now in the collectors.
I know I'm pretty shaken up, and I lift my right hand away from the steering wheel and notice it shaking like crazy. I safely make it to my bank and then home with only a few minor mini slips along the way.
So yeah, other than being late for work this morning(normally a 10-15 minute car ride, took 45 minutes) because of the messy roads and traffic...my morning was pretty interesting to say the least. Scary!...but interesting.
Now remember, it's early in the morning...I'm talking about not even 6am and I'm in my car driving my sister to work. And at that time there ain't too many vehicles out there or had been out there, so the streets are pretty much slick with ice and covered in snow. Everyone is driving anywhere between 30km/h to 50km/h...more often around 40km/h...(on a side note here....are people fucking stupid!!! It's the middle of fucking winter...WHERE THE HELL ARE YOUR SNOW TIRES????). Anyways, we had a few instances where even with snow tires on, the car at times still didn't want to grip the road, so we would slide just a little bit.
I drop my sister off at work and head to the highway to take it home like I always do. Everything is snow covered on the highway and everyone is pretty much going about 50km/h to 60km/h (normally the limit is 100km/h). I make my way to the express lanes to avoid the more cluttered collector lanes. Everyone is pretty much sticking to one lane of the four lanes (cleared because of the amount of traffic using only that lane). I stick to that lane until I had to move into the right outside lane that is the merging lane for me to go from the express to the collector's since my exit was coming up in about 2km.
I'm going roughly 55km/h and my back tire hits a particularly dense amount of snow in the lane and starts to slide. I take my foot off the accelerator immediately and steer the car out of the slide. As the car straightens out, the back end hits another creeping snow drift and sends the back end into a fish tail. My foot is still off of the accelerator (and no, I haven't touched the brakes) and I try to correct the fish tail slide that the car is doing. I drift out into the lane to my left towards another car that is in the next lane from there (still sliding) when the back suddenly hits a slick patch and I spin out. I watch helplessly as the car spins towards the center median. As I'm sliding towards the median, my front bumper comes within a foot of hitting it and the back end slides to a stop with me being parallel to that median and now facing on-coming traffic.
My heart is trying to beat itself out of my chest, but I was extremely thankful that I didn't hit neither another car or the median. Seeing a block of traffic coming my way, I knew I had to turn my car around and continue on my way. I turn and back away from the median and notice a pick-up truck coming up the lane I'm in. I notice he's slowing down quite a bit away from me which is slowing the traffic behind him. Because of them, they blocked the traffic enough for me to continue reversing and turning my car around. As soon as I'm facing in the right direction, I slowly work my way back up to speed and in my proper lane. I hit a few more rough patches where the car tries to slide again, but I finally make it out of the express lanes and am now in the collectors.
I know I'm pretty shaken up, and I lift my right hand away from the steering wheel and notice it shaking like crazy. I safely make it to my bank and then home with only a few minor mini slips along the way.
So yeah, other than being late for work this morning(normally a 10-15 minute car ride, took 45 minutes) because of the messy roads and traffic...my morning was pretty interesting to say the least. Scary!...but interesting.