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How to correct a slide on an icy road (and how to prevent them) - Winter driving education

Jun 07, 2021
It's a heart-stopping moment. Has it already happened to you? If it's not, it will be...unless you're prepared. This video will show you how to fix a

slide

on an icy

road

, but more importantly, it will help you avoid it in the first place. This is Dan Robinson from icy

road

safety.com. We'll talk about three main points in this video when it comes to dealing with

slide

s on icy roads. The first: be aware of the weather conditions in

winter

. SLOW DOWN when icy roads are imminent or in progress, and 3, respond appropriately if your vehicle begins to slide.
how to correct a slide on an icy road and how to prevent them   winter driving education
Before we start

correct

ing a slide, let's talk about how to avoid it in the first place. Whenever temperatures are near or below freezing, keep track of precipitation in your area before you hit the road. There are many apps you can use on your phone to track the weather. If precipitation is forecast and temperatures are below freezing, you can encounter ice at any time. It doesn't take a lot of snow or ice to make the roads dangerous. Most fatal accidents on icy roads occur with very light amounts of snow and ice on the roads. When precipitation is light, most drivers tend to speed and are caught off guard by sudden patches of ice.
how to correct a slide on an icy road and how to prevent them   winter driving education

More Interesting Facts About,

how to correct a slide on an icy road and how to prevent them winter driving education...

One of the most common places for surprise ice to occur are bridges and overpasses. A bridge is more exposed to the air than the road surface, so it tends to cool much faster than the surrounding pavement. After just an hour, this bridge was completely covered in snow, while the adjacent roads were completely free of snow. When it comes to icy roads, the most important

driving

technique is very simple: SLOW DOWN. By being aware of weather conditions and slowing down when icing is expected or forming, you will avoid a dangerous slide. That is always the best result.
how to correct a slide on an icy road and how to prevent them   winter driving education
Statistics show that the most serious and deadly ice traffic accidents occur at high speeds, typically above 45 miles per hour. The higher your speed, the more likely you are to lose control and the more difficult it will be to

correct

a slide successfully. Your speed should never exceed 70 km/h (45 mph) on icy roads, even on a highway. Some types of road ice are more dangerous and may require even slower speeds. In some cases, it's simply a bad idea to be traveling. As a general rule, if your car starts to tailgate or slide, it's a sign that you're going too fast for the conditions.
how to correct a slide on an icy road and how to prevent them   winter driving education
Before we talk about correcting a slide, let's talk about oversteer and understeer. Both conditions can occur on icy roads, but oversteer is the most common cause of accidents at high speeds. Understeer occurs when the front wheels lose grip in a turn, causing the car to continue straight even though the wheels are turned to one side. Oversteer, on the other hand, occurs when the rear wheels lose grip with the road. In an oversteer condition, the rear of the car will slide outward, opposite the direction you are

driving

. Oversteer slides can occur when cornering, turning a corner, or even with a slight steering movement, such as changing lanes on a highway.
Most fishtails are an oversteer condition. Skids can also be caused by braking or accelerating. Both are actions that can cause one or more wheels of the vehicle to lose grip. Now that we've covered the basics of

prevent

ing a slide, let's talk about what to do if one occurs. There are three points to remember about correcting oversteer slip. 1. Don't use the brakes, 2. Turn toward the slide, and 3. Don't panic or overcorrect. The first point we're going to cover is: don't use the brakes. This is one of the most common mistakes drivers make during a slide on an icy road.
Braking can not only trigger a skid, but will make it worse. Here is a good example. Be careful with the brake lights on this car. The car loses complete control almost instantly once the driver hits the brake. The braking, in this case, caused a complete spin before the driver even had a chance to correct the slide. For slip correction to work, the wheels must spin freely. The second point: turn the front wheels in the same direction in which the rear of the vehicle is sliding. You may also have heard of "turning onto the slide." They both mean the same thing.
For example, if the rear of your car slides to the right, turn the steering wheel to the right. As the car straightens out, straighten the steering wheel. It helps to keep your eyes focused on where you want the car to go, that is, on the road ahead. The amount you will need to turn the steering wheel is proportional to how far and how fast the rear of your car is sliding. A small slide will only require a slight steering movement. What often makes correcting skidding so difficult is that once your car begins to respond when you turn the steering wheel, it often reverses in the other direction.
When you are in the process of correcting a slide in one direction, be prepared for the car to spin backwards in the opposite direction. This oscillation can occur multiple times and you will need to respond accordingly. Let's take a look at how to fix a couple of real-world slides from the driver's view. The steering wheel position is superimposed. Finally, the last point: don't panic and don't overcorrect. An oversteer slide gives the car angular momentum, meaning it will want to keep turning until it reaches a full turn. Overcorrection will cause the car to spin faster than the steering can counteract and the car will spin.
Let's take a look at some real-world examples of accidents and slides: some were successfully corrected and some were not. So let's take a look at this video here. This is a bridge, an interstate bridge, which here has a pretty sharp curve to the left. This is in Charleston, West Virginia. I want you to notice the wheels of the car and which direction it turns. First of all, the car is cornering here and you can see the rear end coming out to the right. Now the driver here is responding correctly: you see that his wheels are turned a little to the right in the steering and he is sliding.
Now I want you to notice how the car responds when he turns the steering wheel to the right. Look, the car comes back, and now it's turning left again, and you can see again that it's turning the steering wheel left to correct, which is the correct move. But then watch what happens. The car slides to the right again. At this stage, it is overcorrected. It was too much, and the rear end slid to the right, way to the right. Now, once again, turn the wheel to the right and see what happens. So there, correct, do you see how the car goes backwards in the opposite direction?
So you are turning the wheel to the left to counteract that little slip to the left, but unfortunately in this case it will be too much. Again, this driver was only going about 55 mph, but you can see how difficult it is even if you answer correctly. It is very easy to overcorrect at high speeds. What I am about to show you here is a very rare event. This is someone who successfully corrected a slide. So let's watch and see what happens. The guy is taking the curve here, which turns to the left, which means that in most cases, an oversteer slide will cause your car to slide to the right.
Which is exactly what happens. So let's look. Look right there: the back of the car turns to the right. The driver turns appropriately to the right to counteract, and you can see the car coming back to the left to respond to that. And he manages to correct it. Now, the other thing you can see here is that one of the reasons this driver was able to accomplish this is that he ended up on a section of road that was actually salty, so there wasn't as much ice right here where he was. , so that helped him. But you can see that it takes a little luck as well as skill.
This one is going to be interesting. This driver, again, taking a right curve, where does he expect the rear of the car to go? He will come out to the left. Right there, the rear end comes out to the left, you can see the driver responding correctly, he's turning his wheels to the left to counteract that slide, and then the rear end comes back to the right, he's counteracting again, same thing. . This is an interesting situation, because right in front of this car is the end of the bridge. So, he's on ice right now, but he's about to drive on pavement that's just wet, so his tires will suddenly grab and spin him in the other direction.
The next clip will be at the same time and place, in the same situation as the previous vehicle. The driver turns to the right, the rear of the car turns to the left as it begins to slide, the driver turns slightly to the left, just enough to realign it, the car bounces a little to the right, the driver corrects and manages to achieve it. Let's look at it again. Here's yet another example of why he doesn't want to slow down. I want you to pay attention to the brake lights on this truck. Watch what happens as soon as the brake lights come on.
This driver didn't even slide much until he hit the brake. The main takeaway from this video is that a slide can be corrected, but it becomes much more difficult at higher speeds. Reducing your speed below 70 km/h (45 mph) when icy roads are imminent or in progress will give you the best possible result: avoiding a skid in the first place.

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