S3 Series

Don't do it Kelly!!!! You've already used up all your good luck sir!

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Ok wasn't gonna tell anybody but...............

The other week in the nations midsection we had another big snow storm. I always go to work and did this day while many stayed home. Well at 0900 all is well and I'm thinking hey what wusses, but by 1030 you can't see out the window. My first job ends at 1200 and they closed at 1130 so I start to second job and going down roads I know better than my wife (shudddup).

No jeep here but a 5-speed little Saturn that basically can go anywhere. I am tooling along with people going anywhere from 10mph to 80mph (no lie) in about 4 to 5 inches of snow and falling hard. No body slipping much but you can feel it starting to get bad. Started up a 1 mile incline that goes from about 15º to as much as 20-25º and start to see slowing, so I speed up to no more than 50mph and top the hill then reduce speed to about 35mph and slow decelerate to a nice decline of less than 10º. I make sure no idiot is blasting past or slow in front, basically scans for cons shows empty area for about 1/4 mile so I relax a bit and move to the exchange ramp to another highway.

Speed is down to 30mph and suddenly the wheel is non responsive, I pull my feet off everything and we start to slip left, i push left rudder but no dice she keeps coming left. I also start thinking boy if we hit something dry this won't be pretty. So by now I'm looking backward on the high way and still at 30mph indicated, I center the wheel a bit in anticipation of possible hit on the embankment. She just does the prettiest slow roll you ever saw, yet she still is moving toward the embankment and I turn the wheel left a bit to hit it with some rubber to soften and direct it. At no time did any of my wheel movements do anything to change what was happening. She goes into the rough weeds and stacked snow of the embankment and whips the rear end on over the side so now we are 90º off highway front end pointing at the highway and she stops in about 2 feet of plowed snow.

So now Im thinking this is so embarrassing I don't want anyone to see this. I put her in low and she actually moves a bit but then kinda slides back, so I try again and same sorta thing but its kinda a 1 step forward to 2 slides back thing. This is when I look out the back window and see---------Nothing---------. About 10 feet or so away is a huge ditch about a 50º drop of maybe 20 to 20 feet------------ ut oh I'm not sure I'm THAT embarrassed. So I say a little prayer to the effect of "Hey if I'm being really stupid just holler" and give it one last shot, if it moves backward again I'm done.

For whatever reason this time it was as if I was on pavement and just drove right out and back on the highway as if it was a spring day. At this time I check myself out and the car (while moving) and nothing seems too bad. Im good and all seems right. About a mile away my lower back just charlie horses like crazy and all the car windows steam up.

The car was fine but I guess my body was none-to-fond of the experience and let me know not to be doing that again.

Felt like and idiot (and not a sole stopped to say hey, they must have been frightened by my super red face)

(also I believe that snow is now overmodled)

Glad things ok kelly, and weis I THOUGHT I was too old for it but IT thought otherwise. Hell, I thought I was being an old lady going 35!

Juice

Glad you are ok kelly, must have been seconds lasting a lifetime. Guess you just made a vatorless landing

Glad your Ok boss!

Waiting for the acmcam...
<S> kelly
if it had happened here it would have been on dash cam.
miss having snow, here it gets nippy when it drops to the 50s; time to wear long sleeves and socks

Now my body is remembering what happened LOL. Woke up with ackes and pains all over.

WTG mister Juice= - hope I can escape the experience moving into my next decade or at least handle it just as well as you and Kelly!

Those things don't happen to people who learn to drive with 4 inches of snow on the road. Where I used to live, they didn't plow my side street until there was over 10 inches of snow on the street.

The only time I was in an accident in the winter was when some jerk tried to pass me when we were in a long line of cars going about 30 mph on the highway because of poor visibility. I could only see the rear lights of the 2 cars ahead of me. I leave ample space to stop when the weather so this guy thought he could advance I spot as there was room for his car. He tried to pass 4 times, but the snow was heavier on the other side as most cars were heading out of Toronto. Just as we crest a hill, he starts to pass again and I see the brake lights come on in the cars in front of me. I hit the brakes and come to a stop, the idiots car slews sideways and hits my drivers side fender before going off the road. Then I am sitting on the highway, nobody is moving in front of me so I put on my 4 way flashers. I guess some guys behind me were not paying attention and about 12 cars piled up behind me (yes I got rearended). The cars ahead of me weren't moving and I noticed that the two cars had hit each other. I am certified in first aid so I check the cars behind me and everyone is okay, just shaken up a bit. As I go to the cars in front of me I see that there are 4 cars piled up, no, 6, finally there was a 76 car pileup in front of our little 13 car pileup and the guy in the ditch.

It took the police 3 hours to get to us. The problem was caused because an old guy forgot his glasses and needs them to drive, since it was snowing hard he decided to pull over to the side. He had been driving in the wrong lane so he pulled over into the correct land in his white car and turned the lights off at the bottom of the hill. The first guy had to chance to stop, but the other 74 guys were following too closely.

Always leave room, wear your seat belt and drive according to the conditions.