Tips for winter driving
Black ice, snow, sleet and crazy drivers all await on the road during the winter time.
Accidents can happen when people speed on the highway, simply skid out of control because of ice or try to overcorrect.
Sapphire Chiles, freshman in special education, said her rule of thumb is to never drive in winter unless she absolutely has to. It’s easier to take a bus, she said, than have to worry about other drivers and possibly getting involved in an accident.
Sergant Joe Huish from the USU Police Department said the two main types of accidents he sees are accidents dealing with minor skids or cars not being able to stop in time. On the highway, as well as on the roads, he said people drive too quickly and too closely to other cars and cannot stop in time when some one stops quickly. Huish also said drivers often turn into a parking stall and can’t stop because of ice or snow, and they hit the cars around them.
Huish said the best way to fix these mistakes is to prevent them. He recommends students unfamiliar to driving in the snow and ice practice in a large empty parking lot. Practice turns, stopping, starting and controlling a skid when it’s cold and icy.
Many students like to drive through the canyons to ski resorts. Huish said black ice is more often in the lower altitudes of the canyon close to the mouth. The temperature difference is dramatic enough to create black ice. Since black ice is hard to see, especially when the roads are slick. The best thing to do, he said, is to go slowly.
Samantha Stenner, freshman in English, said she drives on the normal roads instead of the highway.
“You have to drive slowly and pay attention to other drivers. You may be driving safely, but other people don’t,” Stenner said.
For Emily Voutaz, sophomore majoring in elementary education the best way to prevent hazardous conditions in the winter time is to “winterize” a car.
“Winterizing your car means having a full tank of gas at all times,” Voutaz said.