Originally posted by nsxtasy
Snow does not cause accidents any more than matches burn down houses. Our society loves to blame things on external factors. The simple fact is, if you lose control of your car in the snow, unless there was some sort of mechanical failure (like a wheel fell off), it's probably your fault for one of three reasons:
1. You were driving too fast for conditions. Yes, 5-10 MPH can be too fast for conditions if it is very slippery.
2. You did not handle the car properly. This can include driving on roads that are unsafe in the snow, or that your car is not able to handle in the snow. It can also include not knowing how to handle a car in the snow, which I see a lot everytime it snows. Nobody is born knowing how to drive in the snow. There is no shame in not knowing, but if you are going to do it, you need to practice somewhere safe first so you can learn how to control a car properly even when it's very slippery.
3. You had improper equipment for the conditions. If you have 285 wide Z-rated tires, everybody knows you're going to have almost no traction in snow. You know this before you put the key in the ignition.
All three of these factors are under the control of the driver. And if the wheel DID fall off, you still didn't wreck because of the snow, you wrecked because the wheel fell off!
Someone else mentioned ice. I was not talking about ice, I was talking about snow. Black ice can be a different story because many times you simply cannot see it. If you said hitting a patch of black ice caused an accident, sure, I will accept that. But snow is pretty freaking obvious. I don't think anybody has ever not been aware they were driving on snow. So if you wreck your car in the snow, it's most likely your fault for one of the three reasons above.
For some reason many people in this part of the country do not know how to drive in the snow even though we get snow pretty regularly. It's amazing how many wrecks there are everytime it snows around here.
I don't say this to try and make you feel bad, but if you understand that you can control the situation and think ahead to steps you can take to prevent an accident, you won't have to keep getting into wrecks in the snow like so many other people.
I just wanna point out that my tires suck major ass in the snow. Being awd like I am you'd expect my car to be very good in the snow, but that is the exact opposite and I have a feeling the tires are to blame. That one day that I wrecked last semester was seriously the scariest driving experience ever (not the wreck itself as I'm really calm during that crap, but just the rest of the ride home cause the car was going all over the place and I was going way less than 1/2 the speed limit through the back roads). I nearly wrecked many times that trip, all while being extremely careful, but I completely agree that I believe tire selection is something that should be considered EXTREMELY. I use Toyo T1-S tires, which are great for both dry and wet conditions, but very apparently not snow.