Unfortunate to be out on the motorway network when the white rain decided to come , I say white rain because it had no chance of settling on the carriageways and hit the windscreen a slushy mess .
Good visibility and only signs of snow laying on the odd verge .
First off the Single A-road I had to use was clogged by a prat doing 20 mph with his obligatory fog lights on .
There was no need for this , the road wasn’t icy and the snow wasn’t laying .
Then came the motorway , people did nothing but clog it up , slowing down to 40 mph and less and also copying everyone else with the obligatory fog lights .
Lane 1 was clogged by people cautiously driving with good visibility in the white rain at 40 mph , you went around them and then got caught up by people in Lane 2 doing 40 mph and less and wouldn’t move over to let others come past .
It was a complete nightmare and totally uncalled for .
It took some time to get clear of the cloggers , the fog lighters and the refuse to move overs .I looked jealously at lane 3 at all the other sensible people passing with ease .
Once you got clear of them it was fine , everyone was moving along brilliantly , I just seemed to get caught up behind a bunch of idiots
All that for a bit of sleet and the occasional dollop , I can’t wait until we get some proper snow
Same happened to me, some idiot on a dual carriageway doing 25!! I wouldn’t have minded but there was 200 yards left until it was coned down to one lane, so I got stuck at 25!! It wasn’t even settling. I was nearly crying. He was probably panicking/laughing. Time for a holiday I think.
I didn’t drive up his arse though. I was a good boy and left at least 10 feet!
Seriously, I suppose it is better to be safe than sorry. I left a big gap and remained philosophical.
I am going to be semi-respectful here, being as I am a brit.
That said, so is the current mrs BTD.
Now then, snow is a part of life. It is sometimes an extremely dangerous part of life. But the last time I saw really dangerous snow in the UK was 1994 and that was gone within 3 or 4 days.
But in those few days, more people were involved in silly accidents than I would have believed possible, and there were so many cars abandoned that they were being clouted by the ploughs.
Over here the snow lands about now and is still here in April. This is not your minor storm, this is serious and progressive accumulation.
But over here they sell decent winter tyres at an affordable rate. People don’t panic here. Snow is a part of life.
I truly cannot see why the UK can’t just deal with it.
When I came back from Denmark a couple of years ago we found a nice place near Skipton, on a steep hill and my parking place was in the middle of a row of gleaming 4x4. I was chatting to one of the owners of one impressive machine who told me the winters were very bad and as the road was a steep one they decided to buy this car. I wasn’t sure about this, I never remembered England being a snowy place and his tires seemed to be normal road ones, but hey the children need to get to school in the morning.
2 years ago we had some snow in Keighley and driving back along the dual carriage way towards Skipton we had the same thing, fog lights and people driving slow. As my missus ain’t English she was asking what is wrong with the people. We arrive our village on the steep hill and its chaos, cars sideways, people trying to push cars. We carried on up the hill and into our parking space. Another 4x4 owner comes out on his way somewhere and apart from the hellos and stuff comments on how bad the snow is and how glad he is he got such a car then skids down the road with little control.
It was like we had arrived in another world, the missus comes from a country were its very cold, they get a lot of snow and spend a month or two driving on untreated roads, she thought the scenes unbelievable. At that time we had my Danish car with is normal, but has a set of £25 Polish winter wheels bought from a family friend in Poland, surely its a better and cheaper option then a big 4 wheel drive car.
I think as the UK does not get any bad weather as such when some snow arrives they panic and worry too much. They still drive to close to each other, perhaps slower but I don’t see that will help much. We already had the first snow in Poland, the winter tyre’s on on and we will get to where we want to go. I don’t remember much problem in Denmark were it can get bad with a lot of drifting snow, but people drive to the conditions and leave a lot of space. If everyone got winter wheels and left space… er… so fog lights and going slow it will be then.
Problems on the M42 4 inches of snow and an 8 car accident. - here we go the winter has arrived - all the idiots now stop for worry about 1/2 inch of snow!!
M40 S/Bound this morning came to a stop in the Stockenchurch cutting a small car badly damaged on the front, some kind of band tour bus & a DHL van. Just stopped long enough for me to nip out & have a quick ■■■
Left wolverhampton town centre sunday night 11pm… snow had settled to a few inches but with a nearly empty trailer i was getting wheel spin and had to use diff locks to get moving on a SLIGHT! incline
Was glad to hit M6 until Mr Paddy overtook me… as i was over taking a 40mpher!!!
I saw the signs on the 40 for the accident , I was glad I was only going as far as the 34 , but also secretly crying inside and hoping the white rain wasn’t falling down there and dreading the prospect of a dual carriageway
It was clear and smooth running …
Lot of people buy 4x4 vehicles and neglect to change the tyres to a decent all terrain tyre which would be some help in the snow and good for use all year round .
Even better in the snow for grip are mud terrain tyres but it is only people that actually go offroad that buy them .
My Landrover has muds on it and brilliant in the snow , the missus’s suzuki had road tyres on it and I had her swap them off for all terrain tyres .
bobthedog:
I truly cannot see why the UK can’t just deal with it.
cos they arent trained to deal with anything. skid pans should be part of the training. i did it and learned a lot. its even got me out of a couple of scary moments. our current test standards are completely inadequete
paul@midway:
Lot of people buy 4x4 vehicles and neglect to change the tyres to a decent all terrain tyre which would be some help in the snow and good for use all year round .
Even better in the snow for grip are mud terrain tyres but it is only people that actually go offroad that buy them .
My Landrover has muds on it and brilliant in the snow , the missus’s suzuki had road tyres on it and I had her swap them off for all terrain tyres .
People don’t understand the importance of tyres. Most of my landies have been Series models so are normally driven in RWD only. In theory that’s worse than a normal FWD family car but even when you ploint out that you got somewhere with ease without even engaging 4WD thay still think it’s some magical property of being a Land-Rover!
Strange how by fitting knobbly tyres car triallers manage to get old Escorts, MGs etc up muddy hills that would defeat most modern SUVs.
paul@midway:
Lot of people buy 4x4 vehicles and neglect to change the tyres to a decent all terrain tyre which would be some help in the snow and good for use all year round .
Even better in the snow for grip are mud terrain tyres but it is only people that actually go offroad that buy them .
My Landrover has muds on it and brilliant in the snow , the missus’s suzuki had road tyres on it and I had her swap them off for all terrain tyres .
Lets be honest Paul, the vast majority of people who buy 4x4’s won’t want to get their tyres dirty, never mind their hands whilst changing from one type to another . About four years ago I got caught in snow on the M1 around Luton. The traffic was crawling about 20mph but moving until some moron in a Range Rover came up Lane 3 doing about 40, lost it and spun right across the road, collecting some poor sod in a Mondeo. Bought the M-Way to a standstill. It’s like they think that 4x4’s can’t crash in poor weather conditions!
Tony1968:
Strange how by fitting knobbly tyres car triallers manage to get old Escorts,MGs etc up muddy hills that would defeat most modern SUVs.
Part of the problem, in addition to poor driving standards or many of these ‘Chelsea Tractor’ owners, is that the modern ‘SUV’ isn’t designed to go anywhere near mud, snow or any other type of slippery surface. Also, the average modern 4x4 weighs about 3tonnes!
Very true , it’s only a minority of 4x4’s that actually go offroad and with that fiqure only a very small minority with tyres and other items fitted to aid offroad use .
Take the floods some time back I made a few quid wading into those and throwing a rope out of the window to stricken owners with their cars .
Snorkel , extended breather pipes for the diffs and boxes , wading plugs in the bellhousing and cam cover to keep the water out
It’s a common assumption that owning one means you can drive faster in snow and ice.
We all know you can’t , with tyres that can handle the snow and ice you will just be able to carry on driving were others come to a standstill .
Drive too fast and you will lose control and crash , just like any other vehicle .
4x4 means nothing if you don’t know how to use it .
. About four years ago I got caught in snow on the M1 around Luton. The traffic was crawling about 20mph but moving until some moron in a Range Rover came up Lane 3 doing about 40, lost it and spun right across the road, collecting some poor sod in a Mondeo. Bought the M-Way to a standstill. It’s like they think that 4x4’s can’t crash in poor weather conditions! 