[hl0m4n]

im sitting in class and i see the snow is really starting to stick and pile so im anxiously sitting in my chair waiting to go back home asap. time has come and i go home asap.

the highways are still good but once i get on local, damn was that a mess. so im driving 10mph local keeping distance with the car in front of me with everbody behind me doing the same. at the time there was a pretty big accumilation of snow on the ground.

up comes a red light, the guy in front (truck) stops very late and hard. so i hit my brakes hard in reaction but i was sliding foward to the truck with my brake pedal vibrating crazy (the brake pedal vibrates b/c the snow is on the brake and rotors?).

in reaction i see that there is no traffic on the other lane (opposite traffic) so i quickly turned the wheel and started drifting to the curb on the other side. i tapped on the gas controlling the car and drifted from my lane to the opposite side of the road's curb past the truck, past the red light, regained control and was on my way. i even had time to look at other peoples face when i was drifting thinking i would crash.

i would have to say the main thing is not to panic in situations. just keep calm, be normal and just think the situation through. have feel for the car and you can really control your sliding and manage.

the picture below illustrates the situation, the green box being the traffic light and the purple represents cars. im bored and wanted to share experience.

[astra]

nice drawing

and the shuddering was abs...

[rocco]

Originally Posted by hl0m4n

brake pedal vibrating crazy (the brake pedal vibrates b/c the snow is on the brake and rotors?).

Anti-lock brakes pulsing...

...Good to hear you avoided an accident...low-speed but a major hassle for sure...

[MMbmw]

Originally Posted by hl0m4n

im sitting in class and i see the snow is really starting to stick and pile so im anxiously sitting in my chair waiting to go back home asap. time has come and i go home asap.

the highways are still good but once i get on local, damn was that a mess. so im driving 10mph local keeping distance with the car in front of me with everbody behind me doing the same. at the time there was a pretty big accumilation of snow on the ground.

up comes a red light, the guy in front (truck) stops very late and hard. so i hit my brakes hard in reaction but i was sliding foward to the truck with my brake pedal vibrating crazy (the brake pedal vibrates b/c the snow is on the brake and rotors?).

in reaction i see that there is no traffic on the other lane (opposite traffic) so i quickly turned the wheel and started drifting to the curb on the other side. i tapped on the gas controlling the car and drifted from my lane to the opposite side of the road's curb past the truck, past the red light, regained control and was on my way. i even had time to look at other peoples face when i was drifting thinking i would crash.

i would have to say the main thing is not to panic in situations. just keep calm, be normal and just think the situation through. have feel for the car and you can really control your sliding and manage.

the picture below illustrates the situation, the green box being the traffic light. im bored and wanted to share experience.

Okay, first off, I'm glad that you are okay.

Now, how old are you and how much (or little) driving experience do you have?

Originally Posted by hl0m4n

"the brake pedal vibrates b/c the snow is on the brake and rotors?"

Have you ever driven a car with ABS before???

Oh, and while you may have avoided the accident, realize that your stupid manuever (you actually hit the gas??? wtf?) put you on the wrong side of the road and could have caused a head on collison.

consider yourself lucky.

[BlueLion]

Originally Posted by hl0m4n

im sitting in class and i see the snow is really starting to stick and pile so im anxiously sitting in my chair waiting to go back home asap. time has come and i go home asap.

the highways are still good but once i get on local, damn was that a mess. so im driving 10mph local keeping distance with the car in front of me with everbody behind me doing the same. at the time there was a pretty big accumilation of snow on the ground.

up comes a red light, the guy in front (truck) stops very late and hard. so i hit my brakes hard in reaction but i was sliding foward to the truck with my brake pedal vibrating crazy (the brake pedal vibrates b/c the snow is on the brake and rotors?).

in reaction i see that there is no traffic on the other lane (opposite traffic) so i quickly turned the wheel and started drifting to the curb on the other side. i tapped on the gas controlling the car and drifted from my lane to the opposite side of the road's curb past the truck, past the red light, regained control and was on my way. i even had time to look at other peoples face when i was drifting thinking i would crash.

i would have to say the main thing is not to panic in situations. just keep calm, be normal and just think the situation through. have feel for the car and you can really control your sliding and manage.

the picture below illustrates the situation, the green box being the traffic light. im bored and wanted to share experience.

when i lived in ny similar thing happened to me in LI only difference was i coming up to a stop light at a bottom of a hill and truck was already stopped at the light and did the slide drift thing around the truck...and yeah the look on everyone faces, especially the turks are priceless....

[hl0m4n]

Originally Posted by MMbmw

Okay, first off, I'm glad that you are okay.

Now, how old are you and how much (or little) driving experience do you have?



Have you ever driven a car with ABS before???

Oh, and while you may have avoided the accident, realize that your stupid manuever (you actually hit the gas??? wtf?) put you on the wrong side of the road and could have caused a head on collison.

consider yourself lucky.

im 18 never had an accident before. i have driven cars with abs before, have i ever engaged abs and felt brakes pulsing like this no, reason i asked. not even past winters have i experienced this feeling before.

i did the right thing imo. if i didn't hit the gas to give me the thrust to make me slide a bit more i would have hit the curb and most likely went over. also like i said i reacted to went over the line b/c there was no cars passing.

if there was cars passing i don't know how i would have reacted. most likely i would just either a) rear end the truck or b) throw myself over the curb on my side on purpose to stop myself from hitting the car in front. but instinct and natural reaction came to me with no on commming traffic and it just happened.

i had the "feel" for the car when i was sliding. i don't know how to explain but it just came naturally hitting the gas, giving it a short thurst so i can keep sliding and avoid the curb having full control of the car.

my point of this thread is just to be calm if your in an incident and react and not to panic and do something more stupid.

[borisivan]

everyone w/ a car w/ abs should test out their abs before "they need it".

Waaaaaaaaay too many people FREAK OUT when the pedal vibrates.... and they take their foot off of it.

If you have a car w/ abs, test it if you haven't.

[FirstClass]

Originally Posted by borisivan

everyone w/ a car w/ abs should test out their abs before "they need it".

Waaaaaaaaay too many people FREAK OUT when the pedal vibrates.... and they take their foot off of it.

If you have a car w/ abs, test it if you haven't.

<--tests his ABS daily

OP: You were going too fast and/or too close. You should be far enough back that a panic stop isn't an issue if the car is front stops quickly. This may have been as issue due to your age and guessing/judgment of the other nutty drivers isn't that great yet.

[hipnotic]

nice story plus good drawing equals avoiding an accident

[itsbrokeagain]

Originally Posted by FirstClass

<--tests his ABS daily

OP: You were going too fast and/or too close. You should be far enough back that a panic stop isn't an issue if the car is front stops quickly. This may have been as issue due to your age and guessing/judgment of the other nutty drivers isn't that great yet.

yep. The only problem is that when you try to keep that much distance, other asshats behind you in SUVS decide to pass you on the left, blowing you with a lot of snow and then getting in front of you.

[O-cha]

I have been dethroned as the king of paint.

[e90AW335i]

Originally Posted by O-cha

I have been dethroned as the king of paint.

[E90ice]

Originally Posted by hl0m4n

im sitting in class and i see the snow is really starting to stick and pile so im anxiously sitting in my chair waiting to go back home asap. time has come and i go home asap.

the highways are still good but once i get on local, damn was that a mess. so im driving 10mph local keeping distance with the car in front of me with everbody behind me doing the same. at the time there was a pretty big accumilation of snow on the ground.

up comes a red light, the guy in front (truck) stops very late and hard. so i hit my brakes hard in reaction but i was sliding foward to the truck with my brake pedal vibrating crazy (the brake pedal vibrates b/c the snow is on the brake and rotors?).

in reaction i see that there is no traffic on the other lane (opposite traffic) so i quickly turned the wheel and started drifting to the curb on the other side. i tapped on the gas controlling the car and drifted from my lane to the opposite side of the road's curb past the truck, past the red light, regained control and was on my way. i even had time to look at other peoples face when i was drifting thinking i would crash.

i would have to say the main thing is not to panic in situations. just keep calm, be normal and just think the situation through. have feel for the car and you can really control your sliding and manage.

the picture below illustrates the situation, the green box being the traffic light. im bored and wanted to share experience.

ABS

[E90330iS]

Originally Posted by O-cha

I have been dethroned as the king of paint.

Draw something and get him back!

[clark192]

Originally Posted by MMbmw

Okay, first off, I'm glad that you are okay.


Oh, and while you may have avoided the accident, realize that your stupid manuever (you actually hit the gas??? wtf?) put you on the wrong side of the road and could have caused a head on collison.

consider yourself lucky.

I disagree. As physics tells us, rolling friction is better than sliding friction. As long as he was prodding the gas (just to get traction, I'm sure he didnt floor it) he did the right thing. Just brakes alone would have sent him over the curb.

However, in the case of the manuever, as long as you had a great sightline on incoming traffic, like you saw clear thru the intersection before you made your move, then it was okay. But if you didn't see that far ahead, you should have done the safe thing and taken the front end collision with the stationary object. If you had hit a car head-on, the force of the impact would have been greater than if you had hit the truck only.

[hl0m4n]

Originally Posted by clark192

I disagree. As physics tells us, rolling friction is better than sliding friction. As long as he was prodding the gas (just to get traction, I'm sure he didnt floor it) he did the right thing. Just brakes alone would have sent him over the curb.

However, in the case of the manuever, as long as you had a great sightline on incoming traffic, like you saw clear thru the intersection before you made your move, then it was okay. But if you didn't see that far ahead, you should have done the safe thing and taken the front end collision with the stationary object. If you had hit a car head-on, the force of the impact would have been greater than if you had hit the truck only.

of course i didn't floor it . but really i didn't just went on the gas slightly maintaining the feel for the car and pulled through at the end. your physics theory reminds me of high school lol. i blew soo much in physics compared to chem. even though that now that i think of it, if i just remembered the concepts i think i would have done so much better. i think physics is much more on memory then chemistry which needs more hands on? i guess is the word.

and yes of course i had great site. complete straight way.

as for the distance im pretty sure i kept alot of distance about 4-5 car lengths. the truck thought he would make the yellow but it turned red and just completely stopped sliding along the way, thus leading me to brake and slide.

i also had another incident where im going down a steep hill VERY slowly and i see a van behind me just sliding left and right and i mean sliding and yet he was still able to pass me on the left lol. i thought i was going to get rear ended.

[.:bHd:.]

So trucks have better brakes than our cars? greattttt!!!

[AndreyATC]

Thank god for the winter tires
I felt like i was driving a tank
I almost switched back to summer shoes, glad i didnt
I hope everyone else is ok though
I've heard there were a lot of accidents including few with our members

[clark192]

yea, i paid attention in high school physics, and then took it again in college. probable not the smartest thing I did bc i was a finance major, but i did okay in the class.

[Desi]

Driving a cab at night on the weekends has taught me one thing: always look for a way out. You never know if the people around you are drunk/stoned/stupid.

a) maintain an "Oh Shit! Lane", a shoulder or ditch will suffice. This means that always be aware of what is going on in other lanes in case person in front of you does something stupid, you can swerve out of the way. Putting your car into the ditch or onto a shoulder beats the hell out of rear-ending someone. This also holds true if somehow you start spinning. If you KNOW there is traffic coming, put that fucker into the ditch and you could possibly save your own life and others that could plow into you. If you KNOW it is clear you can act accordingly and bring your car to a stop before continuing onwards. I actually used this when I (rather stupidly in hindsight) lost control on a major arterial road and did 2 consecutive 360s during a big snowstorm. Because I had been watching I knew there wasn't anyone coming as far as I could see, had I known instead that there was someone coming I would have guided myself into the ditch I had already scoped out.

b) keep a buffer between you and the car in front of you when traffic is at a standstill and you are the last car in the "pack". Nothing so huge that you are a sitting duck, but enough to move up a foot or two if you think the person coming up behind you isn't decelerating fast enough. This sure as hell won't prevent you from getting hit hard, but it may very well prevent a minor "tap" accident. Also having more room between cars is always a good thing. If you do get plowed into, you may be able to limit the damage by not getting shoved into the guy infront of you.

The practicing ABS thing is also KEY, aswell as knowing how your Traction Control System works. The current cab we use (2007 Impala LTZ) is my dad and I's first with ABS and T/C. After the first major snow storm we took it to the parking lot of Scotiabank Place (Home of the Ottawa Senators) and tore it up to get a feel for how the system functions. I did the same thing in my e90.

[SDYANKEE]

Originally Posted by FirstClass

<--tests his ABS daily

OP: You were going too fast and/or too close. You should be far enough back that a panic stop isn't an issue if the car is front stops quickly. This may have been as issue due to your age and guessing/judgment of the other nutty drivers isn't that great yet.

While I never follow the "4 second rule" while driving, I would tend to agree. The BMW will stop faster than the truck, so the truck stopping short shouldn't be an issue, but realistically, who are any of us to be critical? Hopefully this is your fill on close calls for the year

[status38]

Stuff like this happened all the time in Syracuse. I hope you have a 6MT, engine braking is pretty usefull in the snow. Instead of locking the brakes up and sliding you can slow down some beforehand by downshifting.

Kind of odd that the truck stopped at all though. Cops in Syracuse would not even bother pulling someone over in a situation like this. Most of the time if you get a red that close to you, you couldn't stop if you wanted to. Just have to drive much differently in the snow.