Here are some tips for winter driving:
| • | Have your vehicle in good shape for winter. |
| • | You may want to put winter emergency supplies in your vehicle. |
Also see Tires .
Include an ice scraper, a small brush or broom, a supply of windshield washer fluid, a rag, some winter outer clothing, a small shovel, a flashlight, a red cloth and a couple of reflective warning triangles. And, if you will be driving under severe conditions, include a small bag of sand, a piece of old carpet or a couple of burlap bags to help provide traction. Be sure you properly secure these items in your vehicle.
Driving on Snow or Ice
Most of the time, those places where your tires meet the road probably have good traction.
However, if there is snow or ice between your tires and the road, you can have a very slippery situation. You will have a lot less traction or "grip" and will need to very careful.
What is the worst time for this? "Wet ice." Very cold snow or ice can be slick and hard to drive on. But wet ice can be even more trouble because it may offer the least traction of all. You can get wet ice when it is about freezing (32°F; 0°C) and freezing rain begins to fall. Try to avoid driving on wet ice until salt and sand crews can get there.
Whatever the condition -- smooth ice, packed, blowing or loose snow -- drive with caution.
If you have traction control, keep the system on. It will improve your ability to accelerate when driving on a slippery road. But you can turn the traction system off if your vehicle ever gets stuck in sand, mud, ice or snow. See If Your Vehicle is Stuck in Sand, Mud, Ice, or Snow . Even though your vehicle has a traction system, you will want to slow down and adjust your driving to the road conditions. See Traction Control System (TCS) .
If you do not have a traction system, accelerate gently. Try not to break the fragile traction. If you accelerate too fast, the drive wheels will spin and polish the surface under the tires even more.
Unless you have the anti-lock braking system, you will want to brake very gently, too. (If you do have anti-lock, see Braking . This system improves your vehicle's stability when you make a hard stop on a slippery road.) Whether you have the anti-lock braking system or not, you will want to begin stopping sooner than you would on dry pavement. Without anti-lock brakes, if you feel your vehicle begin to slide, let up on the brakes a little. Push the brake pedal down steadily to get the most traction you can.
Remember, unless you have anti-lock, if you brake so hard that your wheels stop rolling, you will just slide. Brake so your wheels always keep rolling and you can still steer.
| • | Whatever your braking system, allow greater following distance on any slippery road. |
| • | Watch for slippery spots. The road might be fine until you hit a spot that is covered with ice. On an otherwise clear road, ice patches may appear in shaded areas where the sun can not reach: around clumps of trees, behind buildings or under bridges. Sometimes the surface of a curve or an overpass may remain icy when the surrounding roads are clear. If you see a patch of ice ahead of you, brake before you are on it. Try not to brake while you are actually on the ice, and avoid sudden steering maneuvers. |
If You Are Caught in a Blizzard
If you are stopped by heavy snow, you could be in a serious situation. You should probably stay with your vehicle unless you know for sure that you are near help and you can hike through the snow. Here are some things to do to summon help and keep yourself and your passengers safe:
| • | Turn on your hazard flashers. |
| • | Tie a red cloth to your vehicle to alert police that you have been stopped by the snow. |
| • | Put on extra clothing or wrap a blanket around you. If you have no blankets or extra clothing, make body insulators from newspapers, burlap bags, rags, floor mats -- anything you can wrap around yourself or tuck under your clothing to keep warm. |
You can run the engine to keep warm, but be careful.
Caution: Snow can trap exhaust gases under your vehicle. This can cause deadly CO (carbon monoxide) gas to get inside. CO could overcome you and kill you. You cannot see it or smell it, so you might not know it is in your vehicle. Clear away snow from around the base of your vehicle, especially any that is blocking the exhaust pipe. And check around again from time to time to be sure snow does not collect there.
Open a window just a little on the side of the vehicle that is away from the wind. This will help keep CO out.Run your engine only as long as you must. This saves fuel. When you run the engine, make it go a little faster than just idle. That is, push the accelerator slightly. This uses less fuel for the heat that you get and it keeps the battery charged. You will need a well-charged battery to restart the vehicle, and possibly for signaling later on with your headlamps. Let the heater run for a while.
Then, shut the engine off and close the window almost all the way to preserve the heat. Start the engine again and repeat this only when you feel really uncomfortable from the cold. But do it as little as possible. Preserve the fuel as long as you can. To help keep warm, you can get out of the vehicle and do some fairly vigorous exercises every half hour or so until help comes.
