# Idiot Drivers in the Snow **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 10, 2010, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-drivers-in-the-snow/528447 "2010-02-10T18:11:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![MLS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MLS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MLS)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2010, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-drivers-in-the-snow/528447/21 "2010-02-11T18:37:06Z")
Bigger idiots: Tailgaters. WTF? Visibility down to about 20 feet, street full of packed snow and ice and you’re riding my bumper because I’m driving slowly? ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2010, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-drivers-in-the-snow/528447/22 "2010-02-11T18:58:58Z")
On the last big snow fall back in December, we watched the guy running the snow plow try to clear the parking lot of the day care across the street from where I live. Now, I grew up in West Virginia so I’m used to snow, and I do make fun of people around here because they are all idiots in the snow, but to be fair we don’t get that much snow around here so folks don’t really know how to drive in it very well. Still, if you are going to drive a SNOW PLOW I would think that one of the prerequisites would be that you could DRIVE IN SNOW. So this idiot proceeds to start clearing the parking lot. Only the snow is a lot deeper than what he is used to. So, demonstrating is exceptional snow plow driving prowess, he takes a running start and SLAMS into the snow. I was like holy crap :eek: he’s going to break his truck doing that. Then, being the snow driving genius that he is, he proceeds to get his snow plow stuck. In the parking lot. I watch him spin his wheels at about 90 mph (which anyone who knows how to drive in snow will tell you that doing this pretty much guarantees that you aren’t going anywhere), at which point I was half tempted to walk over and offer to get his truck unstuck. But then I thought he might find that offer insulting, so I didn’t. Finally, he managed to get it free. It would have been better if it had stayed stuck. He went back to trying to ram the snow as hard as he could, and sure enough, he broke something. He hit the curb hard enough at an angle that he broke the front axle on the truck. The last we saw he was sliding down the road with both front wheels pointing in different directions, with his back wheels fishtailing left and right. I don’t know how he managed to keep the truck on the road at that point. A construction grader came along and cleared the parking lot a while later. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2010, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-drivers-in-the-snow/528447/23 "2010-02-11T19:13:39Z")
“Snow pompadour” - I love that! Keep an eye on them at the lights - sooner or later you’ll see someone with a snow pompadour that slides right over their windshield when they stop, and you can point and laugh. 😃 One of my peeves is people driving mini-vans or SUVs that they haven’t cleaned off, and they drive along with what I call “their own private snowstorm” going on behind them. ---
**Author:** ![Mooch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7bcc69/32.png) [@Mooch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mooch)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2010, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-drivers-in-the-snow/528447/24 "2010-02-11T19:31:05Z")
> [@badbadrubberpiggy](#): > > Last time, however, I saw no less than three cars in one morning who cleared off exactly one square of their cars, on the driver’s side windshield. Not the back windshields, or the sides, just one tiny square. > > Apparently, you don’t need to see to either side or the back when you’re driving. I just assume people do this so they can pretend they are a tank commander. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2010, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-drivers-in-the-snow/528447/25 "2010-02-11T19:38:52Z")
> [@Mooch](#): > > I just assume people do this so they can pretend they are a tank commander. Now I’m imagining the people doing this making vrrrrooooom noises as they drive. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2010, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-drivers-in-the-snow/528447/26 "2010-02-11T20:45:18Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > I haven’t ever driven in snow. But the title of this thread has caused “Ghost Riders in the Sky” to get stuck in my head. Thanks for the earworm! :mad: 😃 I now have running through my head “Whoopi-eye-yay! Whoopi-eye-yo! Those idiot drivers in the snow-ow!” ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2010, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-drivers-in-the-snow/528447/27 "2010-02-11T21:03:37Z")
Then my work here is done. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2010, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-drivers-in-the-snow/528447/28 "2010-02-12T22:13:05Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > I haven’t ever driven in snow. But the title of this thread has caused “Ghost Riders in the Sky” to get stuck in my head. Heh, I came to post this, exactly. Great minds, and all that. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2010, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-drivers-in-the-snow/528447/29 "2010-02-13T00:23:40Z")
I remember when I was the overnight manager at a hotel, I hired a girl from the Philippines, named Mary Jane. She had moved to Chicago from Hawaii, in April. One December night, she came into work shaking like a leaf, I asked what was wrong. She said “Mark, I’ve never driven in snow in my life. Everyone drives like an idiot. I was scared for my life.” 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2010, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-drivers-in-the-snow/528447/30 "2010-02-13T02:11:29Z")
> [@Anne\_Neville](#): > > Anybody else seen any particularly idiotic or funny snow-driving moves? Did you get around the North Side at all today? No? Then I totally deny that I was the idiot who got his motorcycle out today. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Tully\_Mars](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7ab992/32.png) [@Tully\_Mars](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tully_Mars)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2010, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-drivers-in-the-snow/528447/31 "2010-02-13T13:43:12Z")
It’s comforting to read that in areas where snow and ice are more frequent, you still have the Idiot Drivers in the Snow . We had nearly a foot of snow here in the DFW area Thursday. Surprisingly enough, the idiot count was fairly low. A lot of people stayed home. Usually, after a day like that, the sides of the freeways will be littered with cars and pickups like so many discarded beer cans. I did witness three truly compelling idiots. On Thursday morning, before the snow started in earnest, I entered the freeway and just as I accelerated up to speed, I was greeted by a wall of brakelights. I looked further ahead and noticed the freeway was empty. There was a rolling traffic jam behind a driver going 25 mph with their emergency flashers flashing, in the middle of three lanes. When I left work that night, the snow was deep, but the roads were not frozen because the temperture stayed just at or above freezing. It was dark. The snow was coming down heavy, reducing visibility even more. I was driving in the middle lane across the Lake Worth bridge. I noticed the tail lights ahead of me were growing closer. “He’s going pretty slow,” thought I. “Shit, he’s stoppped!” Sure enough, this pickup is sitting in the middle lane of the bridge behind a disabled car that had earlier rear-ended someone. No emergency flashers were visible on either vehicle. I changed lanes and went around them. I thought about stopping and hooking up a chain to the wrecked car to tow it off the bridge, but I didn’t want to be the third idiot stopped on the bridge. I encountered the third idiot later that evening. About a mile before I reached my freeway exit, I was in the right lane. As noticed a Scion in the middle lane, going about 10 mph slower than I, with his flashers on. “No problem,” thought I. I was about to pass him on the right when he decided to exit from the middle lane, without a turn signal, cutting across in front of me and across the apex of the exit ramp. I executed a quick downshift and was ready to stab the brakes, but he made it across my lane pretty quickly. This was an idiot move regardless of the snow, but it struck me as amusing that he/she was being so careful as to drive slower than everyone else and to turn on their flashers, but didn’t hesitate for a moment to make a totally stupid cross-lane exit. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2010, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-drivers-in-the-snow/528447/32 "2010-02-13T17:22:40Z")
> [@Tully\_Mars](#): > > It’s comforting to read that in areas where snow and ice are more frequent, you still have the Idiot Drivers in the Snow . > \ And how. It gets better as winter goes on, but the first snowfall of the year - ay carumba, the carnage. ---
**Author:** ![MacTech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MacTech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacTech)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2010, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-drivers-in-the-snow/528447/33 "2010-02-13T18:02:49Z")
> [@MLS](#): > > Bigger idiots: Tailgaters. WTF? Visibility down to about 20 feet, street full of packed snow and ice and you’re riding my bumper because I’m driving slowly? _THAT’S_ the reason for the “Snow Pompadour”, it’s an anti-tailgater device…or so I’ve heard… 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2010, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-drivers-in-the-snow/528447/34 "2010-02-15T14:15:33Z")
Last week, I saw a car get stuck a second time, not one minute after he’d gotten pushed out of being stuck the first time. Some people pushed the car and got it moving. The driver drives over to the side of the street and slows down, and gets stuck yet again. > [@kopek](#): > > Did you get around the North Side at all today? No? Then I totally deny that I was the idiot who got his motorcycle out today. > :smack: This reminds me: we need to share this thread with bike riders. I saw a guy on a bike on my street last Monday. Not a motorcycle- a bicycle. Saw him fall off the bike right in front of a car, which fortunately was able to stop in time. Saw him get back on the bicycle after this happened :eek:😕 There’s a time and a place for “if at first you don’t succeed, try try again”. Riding a bike on a snowy street (that I wouldn’t have driven my Civic on, let alone a bike) and nearly getting killed by a car isn’t it. We’re supposed to get yet more snow today (oh joy), so maybe there will be more sightings of idiot drivers in the snow. ---
**Author:** ![fruitbat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/58f4c7/32.png) [@fruitbat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fruitbat)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2010, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-drivers-in-the-snow/528447/35 "2010-02-15T14:52:28Z")
I am in Northern Virginia and we have been dumped on. I also lived in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, so I know how to drive in snow. The single most important thing you can is maintain your momentum. Everyone, from old ladies to teenagers seem to have decided that creeping up the hill at 5 miles an hour is the careful responsible way to drive. Except as they make it towards the crest they inevitably slide from 5 to 4 to 3 to a dead stop and then backwards. I keep somewhere around fifteen miles an hour and I never get stuck and never slide, just keep from unnecessary movement of the wheel and unnecessary braking and you are fine. I still have twice had people yell at me to SLOW DOWN!!! at something between 10 to 15 mph. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2010, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-drivers-in-the-snow/528447/36 "2010-02-15T15:05:04Z")
> [@fruitbat](#): > > I am in Northern Virginia and we have been dumped on. I also lived in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, so I know how to drive in snow. The single most important thing you can is maintain your momentum. Everyone, from old ladies to teenagers seem to have decided that creeping up the hill at 5 miles an hour is the careful responsible way to drive. Except as they make it towards the crest they inevitably slide from 5 to 4 to 3 to a dead stop and then backwards. The guy I saw get stuck twice was going up a slight incline. Momentum can be your friend, if you let it. ---
**Author:** ![Lanzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/74df32/32.png) [@Lanzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lanzy)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2010, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-drivers-in-the-snow/528447/37 "2010-02-15T15:12:21Z")
The best thing I saw last week was 2 18 wheelers approching a low bridge with about a 12 inch clearance with at least 2 ft of snow on the roofs of both. It was a spectacular sight of a small temporary blizard. Although oncoming traffic didn’t think so. ---
**Author:** ![yastobaal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/258eb7/32.png) [@yastobaal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yastobaal)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2010, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-drivers-in-the-snow/528447/38 "2010-02-15T15:30:10Z")
> [@fruitbat](#): > > I am in Northern Virginia and we have been dumped on. I also lived in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, so I know how to drive in snow. The single most important thing you can is maintain your momentum. Everyone, from old ladies to teenagers seem to have decided that creeping up the hill at 5 miles an hour is the careful responsible way to drive. Except as they make it towards the crest they inevitably slide from 5 to 4 to 3 to a dead stop and then backwards. > > I keep somewhere around fifteen miles an hour and I never get stuck and never slide, just keep from unnecessary movement of the wheel and unnecessary braking and you are fine. I still have twice had people yell at me to SLOW DOWN!!! at something between 10 to 15 mph. You’ve just reminded me of the UK’s troubles with snow at the beginning of January. My main route in to Oxford was blocked and so I decided to try a back route through a couple of villages (yes the snow is going to be worse, but the dual carriageway was going to delay me by a couple of hours by it’s length). I get half-way through the first village but get stopped in a short line of traffic heading back up a hill. It’s less than a 10% gradient but not by much. After a couple of minutes the cars start to move again and I leave a fair gap between myself and the car in front. Unfortunately my car is front wheel drive and the tires have no real grip in icy or snowy conditions so I can’t get up to a speed I would like (your 15 mph target would have been about right). So I just keep the car going with careful use of the throttle, backing off if I start to slip but I keep pressing on. The Ford behind me however seems to think I’m being over cautious and is so close I can’t even see their number plate, even honking their horn on occasion. Anyways, I get to the top, continue on my way and make it to Oxford on time. Just wanted to relate this story to say that myself and probably the Ford driver thought the other guy was an idiot for not driving suitably, 🙂 sometimes things can be relative. ---
**Author:** ![foolscap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9a140/32.png) [@foolscap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolscap)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2010, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-drivers-in-the-snow/528447/39 "2010-02-16T04:13:46Z")
> [@smiling\_bandit](#): > > Odd question: I was under the impression that it was a good idea to, well, _not stomp_, but _tap_ the brakes several times and brake gently thereafter, particularly if you were uncertain how slick it was. Is this wrong, or am I just right and stomping is the bad thing? The new cars are designed to tap the brakes for you. Rapidly and lightly several times a second.😃 In older cars, If you stomp on your brakes the wheels lock up and you loose what little control you could have. Taping the brakes works, stomping the brakes does not. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-drivers-in-the-snow/528447.md?page=1)