How Much Do You Know About Driving In Icy Conditions?

From the most seasoned driver in St. Peters, Missouri to the individual who just relocated to St. Peters, St. Charles, O'Fallon, or Lake St. Louis, Missouri from down south, every motorist should become aware of the risks involved in winter travel. St. Peters, Missouri auto body shops including Jungerman CARSTAR see cars roll into their garage each winter from drivers who felt that they didn't need to be concerned about slippery road hazards. If you don't wish to be among those unlucky people, read this article to find out exactly what you need to know.

Why would I read through this if I have already got experience in winter driving?

You'd think that having experience would be helpful for winter driving, and to an extent you'd be right. However, the difficulty that accompanies that is the fact that motorists who possess lots of experience on icy roads frequently get into auto body accidents due to their overconfidence. If we were to be entirely honest with ourselves, we'd recognize that there isn't a person on the road who has the skill level needed to drive at highway speeds on roads when ice is present. Nobody has the reflexes and quick brain necessary to recover once you start fishtailing at high speeds. Thus, it's extremely important that every driver get ready for winter weather not merely by practicing winter driving at slow speeds, but also by driving slow in general.

Aren’t good tires everything you need to drive safely on winter roads?

Again, this is one of those half-truths that can land you in a Jungerman CARSTAR auto body shop quicker than you know it. Having good tires with a sufficient amount of tread will help you out there. Nevertheless, you should never be lulled into a false feeling of security by good tires. While good tires could get you up and going in snowy conditions, your snow tires will not do you a lick of good once all the snow is compacted into ice. Once again, good tires may do a lot to help you, but they are not the be-all, end-all of wintertime driving safety.

Won’t I have the capacity to get ready for ice as I notice it coming?

This would be a good strategy, but the issue is that you often can't see ice coming. “Black ice” is an expression used to describe ice that blends into the asphalt so well that you can barely see it at all, no matter how close you are to it or exactly how well you are concentrating. Most wintertime driving auto body accidents don't happen when there's a very visible layer of snow covering the whole road. The genuinely dangerous stuff is the ice that you can't see until you have already lost control of your car. Do not wait until it's too late to drive like you are on dangerous winter roads. Take the appropriate precautions with every push of the gas pedal.

So all I need to do is decelerate and I am going to avoid a crash on snow or ice?

That statement isn't wholly true either. Without a doubt, one of the safety measures that we all should take on winter roads is to decelerate to a decent speed given the conditions that we are being confronted with. However, that's only one precaution of many. The truth is, anyone who is traveling too quickly in snow or ice is at far more risk of crashing than people who are not. Most data really points to the fact that lots of motorists who get into automobile accidents were going at a fairly reasonable speed. What usually happens is that a motorist going at what they believe to be a safe speed drops their guard, strikes a spot of black ice, and gets into an auto body collision before they can even understand what happened. The moral of this story is that you should not think that driving relatively slowly ensures that you are immune from sliding on the ice.

What should change about my driving habits to get ready for winter driving?

Naturally, you need to slow down. Obviously, you have to have good tires. These are things that we have already covered. Additionally, be careful out there. Do not make quick lane changes or fast turns. Allow a lot of space between you and the car before you. Always be attentive and on the lookout for obvious ice and snow on the road. Exercise a little common sense and do not forget that no time saved will be worth the loss of your life or anybody else’s as a result of a wintertime auto body accident.

What speed would be safe for driving in winter driving conditions?

The speed that you should be driving will depend on the particular conditions that you find yourself in. A variety of factors should affect your speed including the quantity of ice and snow, if there are any curves, the sharpness of said curves, the incline of any hills, the quantity of traffic, and your own comfort level. If you are on the open interstate with no hills or other traffic, you may find forty miles per hour to be a reasonable speed. If you incorporate any of the factors above into the mix, you probably should reduce your speed even more.

Even with all these precautions, you can't ever be completely safe on the road if you're dealing with something as dangerous as black ice. Truly, the best thing that can be done is to hold back until the weather goes away if you see any freezing rain in the forecast before heading out. However, this is not always practical in every situation. For anybody living in St. Peters, St. Charles, O'Fallon, or Lake St. Louis, Missouri, you'll have to drive in icy weather conditions at some time. The smartest thing that you can do is just be prepared. One way to be prepared is to choose an auto body shop in advance so you do not need to make a quick decision if and when you get into a wreck. Give consideration to Jungerman CARSTAR in St. Peters, Missouri. They have a lot of experience fixing vehicles which have been damaged by the rough roads of winter.