Idiot drivers in the snow !!

Thoie

Buffman wrote: »

On the bright side I took advantage of the conditions during lunch to practice some skid recovery techniques in an big empty car park at work. It was great fun.:D

Slightly OT, but I've got a big empty carpark here just waving at me, and was considering the same thing for the sake of practise. Few problems though - I know the theory of skid recovery (steer with the skid, accelerate slowly out of it I believe?), but I'm not sure how to deliberately put my car into a skid in the first place. Any tips?

Anan1

I'd just add to be very careful of any kerbs/islands that may have been hidden by the snow.

Queen-Mise

seamus wrote: »

I think I'm going to get a big banner and put it on top of my car tomorrow:

"DRIVE IN A HIGH GEAR MORONS"

Coming home, came upon a number of people who got stuck going up hills in first gear.

they probably wouldn't know what a high gear was.

JustAddWater

To the 4 idiots driving out of citywest today, don't bother driving tomorrow. You'll be saving someone's life if you do. I called you names from my window and I hope you heard because you need to be shamed

TALKING ON YOUR PHONE WITH A HAND TO YOUR HEAD WHILE DRIVING ON SLIPPERY ROADS IS JUST ASKING FOR AN ACCIDENT

good god those 4 consecutive cars, is it really worth risking a serious collision to call your ma's best friends aunts' uncle to tell say "hey! look its snowing yay! isn't it brilliant."

TBH I can't see any genuine need to make or receive a call that can't wait until you've stopped or better yet why the call wasn't made before they left work. It's beyond me.

FFS every phone has speakerphone. If you think i'm to believe you can afford a €40/50k bmw yet can't afford €20 lousy euro for a bluetooth headset i'm not buying it.

It's hard enough to drive in that weather without driving with one hand whilst not giving it your full attention.

Can't believe I have to dumb the whole thing down and explain why you shouldn't use a phone while driving but those people were absolute ignorant assholes and need to learn the basics do's and dont's I think.

Gob****es of the highest order. Stay at home tomorrow idoits, because I would rather stay alive. If that's alright with you?

SV

JustAddWater wrote: »

Gob****es of the highest order. Stay at home tomorrow idoits, because I would rather stay alive. If that's alright with you?

You forgot these ones

Thoie

LIGHTNING wrote: »

If you have been given permission by the owners to do so then its a good idea to get some practice in. Drive in a straight line at a snails pace (10-15k) then turn and pull the handbrake up at the same time. Once the car starts to slide release the handbrake and correct the slide by turning into the opposite way to the slide and gently apply power.

If done correctly the car should straighten up, note apply the power and steering nice and smoothy. If you apply too much steering input the car can flick the other way.

Permission is granted, no other road users/people around, no hidden kerbs, the house is (hopefully!) far enough away, and all other caveats duly noted - thank you

It's a bit late for me to go out now, but if there's any left around tomorrow, can I just confirm something? You mention turning the opposite way to the slide. So, driving a standard FWD, if, when I do that, the nose starts heading left, I gently steer right?

The thought of putting the car deliberately into a skid (even at walking pace) scares me a bit, so I want to have an idea of what I'm doing first. The area I'm looking at is pretty big, so if something went drastically wrong and I started going around in circles, would the best thing to do just be to ease off all power and wait for the car to come to a stop?

I would hopefully never have to use it in real life (as I like to think I'm a careful driver), but skids can and do happen, and having your brain trained for eventualities helps remove the first few seconds of panic. I hope

Anan1

Imagine you're gently turning right and you pull up the handbrake for a second. The tail of the car will go out to the left, thus tightening your turn to the right. To correct this, steer to the left.

samsemtex

Truck drivers are imbeciles in this weather. I was driving from Cork to Dublin last night and the behaviour i saw from truck drivers was incredible. I was doin 25 outside Portlaoise in a heavy snow shower and the car was sliding a lot under me. Next thing i see an artic with a fully loaded 40ft trailer overtaking me doing at least 45. He would not have a hope of stopping if he had to. This happened again on the nass bypass. They are idiots. Van drivers werent much better.

Best one i saw was a "highway maintenence" van passing me outside Naas. The road was more slippy here than anywhere and we were at a crawl doing about 25mph. Mr. Van man decides to fly by everyone doing about 45 in the fast lane, which was covered in snow because no one was using it and all the drift was building up in it. About 10 metres ahead of me he starts spinning out of control and into the barrier lightly. Ends up in the middle of the road facing me.

To top it all off he was on his phone....unbelievable.

RandomAccess

I just saw this clip of a very very! near collision in the UK (22secs into the video),
Its fairly typical of the kinda stupidity we are seeing.

The sad fact is that these people drive badly all the time, they just can't get away with it on snow/ice.

http://www.emailthis.clickability.com/et/emailThis?clickMap=viewThis&etMailToID=952412981

mumhaabu

Boris Johnson spoke direct to the weather I lol'd!