Freezing Fog, a Slick Overpass, and Frozen Washer Fluid

In order:

1. Ease off the accelerator smoothly. Do not lift abruptly - a sudden change in torque can finish the spin.
2. Look and steer where you want the front of the car to go, with a smooth, measured input. Steering into the direction the rear is sliding (right) is what lines the car back up.
3. No hard braking. Locked or ABS-cycling front wheels cannot steer, and on ice braking transfers weight forward and unloads the rear, which is exactly what is already sliding.
4. Straighten, then brake gently once the car is tracking and the tires have regained grip. Then reduce speed substantially before the next overpass.

Must not do: stomp the brakes; yank the wheel the other way (that produces a snap spin the other direction); accelerate out of it; or fix your eyes on the guardrail or the semi. Target fixation steers you into what you stare at.

Note also that the passing semi created the gust and the wake that helped break traction; the lesson is to expect a loss of grip any time a large vehicle passes over a slick deck.

Choose speed from sight distance, not from the posted limit.

Work the numbers: 65 mph is roughly 95 feet per second. With about 150 yards - 450 feet - of visibility, you have under five seconds of look-ahead at that speed. On ice, stopping distance can be several times the dry-pavement figure, so a 450-foot sight line is nowhere near enough to stop from 65. The working rule is to drive at a speed from which you can stop within the distance you can see to be clear - which here means slowing well below the limit, and slowing further on bridge decks and overpasses, which freeze first because cold air moves under them.

Following distance: the normal three-second gap is a dry-road minimum. In freezing fog on patchy ice, stretch it to eight to ten seconds or more, and add space whenever someone behind you is close. Also increase your margin from the semi - do not ride alongside it, where you are invisible and where a gust or a slide gives you no room.

Finally, treat the smeared windshield as a hard limit on speed: if you cannot see, you cannot drive the limit safely regardless of the road.

Take the exit two miles ahead. A parking lot, a truck stop, or a gas station is the only genuinely safe place to wait out freezing fog and a smeared windshield. Two miles at a reduced speed is a manageable distance.

If you cannot reach the exit, do not stop on the shoulder - that is where the hazard is worst. In low visibility, a stopped car on the shoulder is struck by vehicles that drift right, and standing outside it is more dangerous still. Pulling onto the shoulder also puts you in the path of anyone else making the same mistake.

If a stop is unavoidable:

• Get as far off the traveled way as the terrain permits, well beyond the fog line.
• Hazard flashers on, headlights on; if you have them, reflective triangles set well behind the vehicle - never in the traffic lane.
• Stay belted inside the car, on the side away from traffic, and keep the engine running only if the exhaust is clear of snow and the windows are cracked for air.
• Do not stand behind or beside the vehicle, and do not use the shoulder as a place to inspect a tire.

The windshield itself deserves attention: frozen washer fluid means you have lost your ability to clear spray from passing trucks. Carry winter-rated fluid, and treat a smeared windshield as an emergency that dictates your speed and your route, not a nuisance to be endured at 65 mph.