Sketchy snow driving situation - what’s the right etiquette/safe?
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Anonymous
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I went skiing in WV yesterday. On the drive back to the DC area, it was dumping snow on the mountain highways in WV. I have an AWD Subaru with snow tires.
I’m on Highway 48, which is this amazing modern four lane highway in the middle of the WV Appalachian mountains. It goes over numerous mountain passes and winds through the mountain range. It’s dumping snow, massive flakes and it’s accumulating on the roadway. It’s probably about 330pm and I’m on a 25 mile stretch of road that clearly hasn’t seen a snow plow in a couples hours. Easily 3-4 inches on the roadway and lots more on the side of the road. It’s impossible to see the roadlines and visibility comes and goes without warning. Pretty terrible conditions if you’re not prepared or have the right vehicle. As I’m climbing another mountain pass, I see a line of probably a dozen cars ahead of me that have come to a stop in the middle of highway blocking both lanes. Fortunately, visibility is decent (400-600 yards) in spite of the falling snow At the front of the are 3 cars that appear to be part of a caravan - blue sedan, a UHaul small box truck, an older RAV-4. The blue sedan has drifted into the median area of the highway where the snow is deepest and they are stuck. Young men are out trying to get the car loose. The UHaul and RAV-4 have blocked both lanes of traffic so no one can get around the blockage. The young men get the car out, but then the vehicle gets stuck again in the left lane. We are driving up an incline and the sedan is having a hard time getting traction. The other 9-10 cars stuck behind them are just sitting in the middle of the highway, with our hazards on. Some folks are out of their vehicles and cleaning snow/ice off their windows. The entire situation seems very dangerous. I’m at the end of the line of cars and nervously checking my rear view mirror, just waiting to see the headlights of an approaching vehicle. Fortunately, visibility is still decent (can see 300 yard behind me) but we really shouldn’t be stopped in the middle of highway during a snow storm. The vehicle in front of me tries to move his tires and it’s become clear that he might be frozen in place and he’s having a hard time with traction. I’m worried we might all freeze our wheels in place on the highway, if conditions worsen After about 5 minutes, I start honking my horn. The RAV4 and U-Haul still have not moved their vehicles out of the way. They are not stuck because they moved their cars the first time the blue sedan got out of the deepest snow. It’s starting to get foggier and there’s no way I want to stick around in this I pulled around to the right side of the line of cars, drive to the front through probably 8-9 inches of snow (yay Blizzaks!), and the RAV4 actually moves to try to block me! At this point, I get out of my car and walk to the driver side window, yelling at the older man to pull the car over and let us pass. He begrudgingly does so when the younger men motion for him to move. I got in my vehicle and GTFO of there. I didn’t see any other cars moving as I drove away. What’s the right thing to do here? These cars clearly were not prepared for a snow storm. My fear is that we would have all been rear ended by a big truck and this would’ve caused a massive pile up. Further, daylight was receding and I wasn’t about to stay in those mountains at night in a snow storm. Is this a scenario where etiquette and safety norms conflict? |
Anonymous
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Anonymous
| They did the right thing by blocking the road for the safety of folks helping. You could be decent and help. |
Anonymous
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Part of the risk you took by driving there during a well forecasted storm.
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Anonymous
At least don’t honk. |
Anonymous
| You should have been using your fancy big vehicle to drag them out of the snow. You were in WV where people are nice, stay in Dc next time. Or at least put your hazards on and wait patiently like everyone else. |
Anonymous
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You’re a moron for driving home in that storm.
- someone who was also in WV yesterday and smart enough to wait until today to drive home. |
Anonymous
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1. Don't be out on the roads during a snowstorm if you can help it. 2. The people out on the road trying to get their car of the snow are in the most danger. Be super careful around them. 3. In such conditions, there are no rules. Don't kill someone else trying to get out of Dodge. I once had to drive on the wrong side of the road to avoid a bus sliding back downhill towards me on icy East-West highway years ago. The ice/snow event was not predicted to be that bad, and hit during the evening commute. Fun times. |
Anonymous
| Eh, I'm team OP. At some point it's time to let the cars that can still travel pass. I live in NC and people are absolute idiots in bad weather. Unless it's just one slick spot, there isn't much point in trying to help an ill prepared vehicle travel in a snow storm, especially in the mountains. They should have done their best to push the car to the side and called a tow truck. They should not have been driving it without chains. Blocking the road for everyone makes no sense. |
Anonymous
DP here: You’re telling me the right etiquette for when a car has issues in a snow storm is for all other traffic to stop, thereby likely causing more people to get stranded? That doesn’t sound right. |
Anonymous
If a car is stuck in the middle of two lanes, and others are trying to help them get out then yes, their safety is paramount. Otherwise you’re going to have a car stuck in the middle of the road with minimal visibility, no warning to oncoming traffic, and large trucks traveling. That could cause a much larger accident. Waiting 10 or even 30 minutes is not that difficult if everyone can get out safely. OP thinks her tires are going to freeze in 25-30 degree weather after 5 freaking minutes. She’s honking, driving aggressively, blocking emergency vehicle lanes because she was impatient, road raging, and rather than pulling around to help out she gets the h out of dodge. She certainly doesn’t understand the local culture. She was ill prepared and too inexperienced to be driving on the mountain in the WV snow and shouldn’t have been there to begin with. |
Anonymous
OP here: That storm was like a 4.5 out of 10. They didn’t even close the highway. People drive through worse everyday in Utah, Colorado, the Sierras, Montana, etc. I’ve lived in some of those places I listed and life would pretty much stop if you didn’t drive out in snowy weather. If you had an AWD vehicle with decent clearance and snow-rated tires you were totally fine with yesterday’s drive. The only thing that made the drive sketchy were people in their sedans on all-weather tires with no chains. It wasn’t even that icy in the afternoon, tbh. It was only going to get icier as the day turned to night and everything froze. |
Anonymous
| People whose vehicles can’t handle conditions shouldn’t be driving in said conditions. |
Anonymous
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You probably should not have honked. You could have gotten out to either ask them to move or get the full story on why they were blocking the road. My assumption would be that they were blocking for the peoples safety.
But if you were able to safely pass them, I don’t see why you should’ve been prevented from doing so. I just think the honking and that situation might’ve been too aggressive. |
Anonymous
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I'm trying to understand why you thought your wheels might freeze in place. I grew up in Colorado and have never heard of that. We drove to school, stores, friend's homes, etc. without concern of not being able to leave due to the car being stuck to the road.
It's extremely irresponsible of you to drive through 8-9 inches of snow in your vehicle. |