Winter Time Driving (Anchorage, Seward: subdivision, live, bus)

[Dakster]

As seen from the Dash Camera of a Police Car...

Vidvir - Car accident [NSFL]

Is this what it is like driving in AK in the winter?

[AKStafford]

It isn't always like this, but it can be. I drive a truck with no weight in the back end and there's time when accelerating up a hill I'll feel the back end break free. I've got a lot of experience and even some training when I was a bus driver for driving on ice and I instinctively know how to react.

When the weather gets like this you just slow down. You'll notice he was trying to pass a vehicle when it happened. His safest bet would've been to just stay behind the slower vehicle. It sucks, but it's what you do when it's that slick out.

I'd say for me in the average winter there's maybe a total of 10 days where I feel like the roads are bad enough that I'm nervous.

[roadfamily6now]

that could be here. Except most of our roads are only 1 lane on each side.

[Dakster]

I drive slow and steady, especially in inclement weather or on slippery roads.

I'd rather get there late than not at all... Unfortunately, that didn't look like to me that it was a survivable accident for anyone in that vehicle. But I have seem some 'bad' accidents and have talked to the driver on the scene, and I have seen some that didn't 'look' that bad and ended up being a fatal accident.

I had something very similar to that video happen in front of me a year ago. 7 people in a Ford Expedition SUV and only 3 got to eventually go home. While they were going Mach 4 on the turnpike, it blew a rear tire and went from the far right hand side of the turnpike, bounced of a steel-wire barrier (otherwise it would have gone into a Canal) and the vehicle started flipping side over side, it did this several times ejecting people along the way. The vehicle shot between a u-turn break to the other side of the turnpike. To this day, I don't know how the 18-wheeler coming the other way managed to miss them, but he needed to change his shorts. There are normally 'Jersey' barriers that separate on-coming traffic from each other with a spot for a trooper to make a u-turn every couple of miles. The accident happened right at an opening in the wall...

The people that were seat belted in survived, notice I didn't say they were un-injured, but they lived. This was in warm, dry, sunny weather...

[AADAD]

That was a very nasty accident. And yes, they happen just like that. A little slide > overcorrect > and outch.

[Marty Van Diest]

This isn't an Alaska highway but it is similar to the kind of conditions we have quite often. I posted this on my facebook page a few days ago. It is the kind of video that makes you pause and consider.

Note that the vehicle is a 4 wheel drive. They are great for not getting stuck but harder to control when you start fishtailing like this one did. Most of the cars in the ditch seem to be 4 wheel drive.

I drive between 30-40 thousand miles a year on bad roads...not highway driving for the most part and I use a front wheel drive car. I wear one out every few years. I do have a 4 wheel drive but only use it occasionally when I know the place I am headed needs one.

I got stuck once this winter in this record snowfall, and it was my own fault. I was heading out of an uphill driveway and was going to make it OK but turned too sharp and got pulled into the deep snow. That's the only time I had to have someone pull me out. Pretty much all my driving is on back subdivision roads. I saw a lot of 4 wheel drives stuck, in fact I helped shovel several of them out this winter. I didn't try to pull anyone out in my PT Cruiser but I think I'll carry a long nylon rope next winter just for that reason.

[stiffnecked]

It reminded me of an accident I saw happen right in front of me on the Seward Highway just north of Girdwood last summer. Lady tried to pass everyone and plowed head-on into oncoming traffic. No fatalites but they shut the highway down for 3 hours and airlifted her and another man to Anchorage.

[tigre79]

Our roads out here are very often worse than that, and only two lanes. If you get careless or distracted and stray onto that slick middle strip you can start sliding easily, even if the roads are okay for the most part. It didn't look like the driver in that video was trying to pass anyone, as the vehicle in front had already changed lanes and the next vehicle was a good bit further ahead. Probably just wasn't paying enough attention. How awful for everyone involved.

A friend of a friend died about an hour north of here last month when he slid on ice and bounced off the snow berm into the other lane. There's so little traffic out here it was just terrible luck that there happened to be another vehicle coming the other way right then.

[NorthwestRepublic]

Quit lying its common knowledge that all Alaskans travel by sled dogs.

[warptman]

Originally Posted by NorthwestRepublic

Quit lying its common knowledge that all Alaskans travel by sled dogs.

I park my plane outside my house.