Caution, Slippery Roads

Identifying a cause of Slippery Roads

Three cars have skidded off the road outside our home in the previous two weeks. Luckily nobody was hurt apart from one lady who suffered some contusions from her airbag. It was also quite remarkable that there was hardly any damage to the vehicles. One car stopped about ten inches away from a parked car and the other two skidded into ditches.

(And on 25/10/2010 there is another car off in the normal place. This time not only were the mailboxes flattened, but the car hit the electricity pole, ripping a wheel off the car and causing the pole to lean over and allow electricity cables to fall down - what fun.)

What was unremarkable for the skidding was the reason for them – rain. If this is what it is like now, in a rainy Canadian Fall, God help us in a snowy Canadian winter. Last winter we had to replace our rural mailboxes twice. Perhaps we should arrange to over-winter in Florida, like most Snowbirds from Canada.

A modicum of common sense would have prevented all three off-road excursions.

The weather over the past few weeks has been wonderful. The heat has been in the 30’s Centigrade most of the time but with occasional showers. The showers, days apart and extremely heavy, have been the problem.

Every driver should remember one fact regarding car tyres; now and then they have to be replaced. They have to be replaced because the treads wear out. They wear out because of normal use. Have a look at the photograph of the road. This is part of County Road 2 in Ontario, Canada. On both side of the road there are ditches around six feet deep, but it is difficult to gauge this because of the tall grass. The reason for the ditches being so deep is so that the snowploughs can have somewhere to dump the ploughed snow.

Ignore the badly over-painted yellow lines, and try not to wince too much at the ‘temporary’ repairs to the cracks caused by frost-heave. Instead, take in the whole picture, perhaps concentrating on the opposite side of the road which is unblemished. On that side of the road the double tyre tracks are more obvious as they disappear into the distance.

Those tracks are caused by friction as your car tyres wear away, leaving layers of lethal rubber. This is especially true on corners as there is a greater amount of friction on your tyres as you turn corners. Unless it is a brand new road, or has just been re-surfaced, you are always driving with your wheels on twin tracks of danger. And driving with one set of wheels in the centre, between the tyre tracks, won’t solve the problem; that is where all the oil and grease from the car and truck engines settles.

Don’t think about the danger too much, but be aware. Be aware that if those tracks of rubber and grease become wet, there will be less grip for your tyres – rubber, grease and water do not mix. [The most dangerous time is after a long spell of dry weather when the first shower falls. That is when the road is at its slickest and you should come off both the gas and brake pedals – and concentrate.]

Imagine walking into your favourite café; the one with spotless tiles on the floor. Consider the same café with wet tiles on the floor. Not only would you tread very carefully, but the café would have erected a sign like the one shown.

Your local highway authority would love to be able to erect signs every hundred metres warning you, ‘Caution slippery when wet,’ or even ‘Caution, this curve is named Deadman’s Corner for a Reason,’ but they couldn’t afford to do so. They are too busy clearing up after skidding accidents. Be more alert at the first sign of rain.

And, trust me on this, if you do skid into a ditch and your car is lying on its side, you’ll find a car door helluva hard to open when it is above you. In fact, you may need outside help to get it open. [If your car is a two door coupe, you will almost certainly need outside help].

Safe driving.