Black Ice

[slowzuki]

Its a tough call when you have no choice but to slow down on black ice. I almost always pick to steer onto the shoulder or at least out of the well travelled wheel tracks first.


Once your tires lock up from using the brakes, often the brakes will stick a bit and prevent them from rolling again and you're done.

I drive a manual transmission front wheel drive with very low drag in the drivetrain so I can usually get away with pushing the clutch and feathering the brakes. I try not to engine brake with it much because in snow it makes the car oversteer (back end come up front) on ice the tires just slip and I lose steering.

My last vehicle was a rear wheel drive / 4wd. If I pushed the clutch the rear end would lock up, especially when it was cold out from all the drag in the axle and transfer case. I had no choice but to carefully engine brake. Also, in that vehicle the front hubs where manual. In 2wd with the hubs locked, the drag of the front axle would lock the wheels up on black ice so I had to pop it into 4wd before crossing long patches or when just driving on it.

I really prefer driving on ice in an AWD like a manual tranny subaru as it gives you a lot more margin compared to a pickups 4wd system just because it rolls along with little drag. It evens out your braking quite a bit in case the fronts are biased a bit strong.

Some other finer points, sometimes in a fwd car, people get used to the extra traction for steering from the weight transfer during braking, ie stomping the brake pushes down on the front end increasing the traction available to brake or steer. You don't have this on ice. You have it a bit even on snow but it is gone on ice.

 

[Kernopelli]

Ridgewalker, thank you for sharing this. I can only imagine how difficult your loss must be.
The interstate I was on in this original post was I-24 that runs West out of Paducah...small world. In just the last year, they have put water barriers up at every overpass support between mile marker 1 and the Ohio River bridge outside Paducah. Little comfort to you and your family but this will undoubtedly save many others the loss you have experienced.

WBWI, that traffic cam is very similar to what took place in the original post. A number of vehicles losing control one-by-one ( at a much slower pace at first) until there was a concentration of traffic heavy enough to start contacting each other and ending with 3 semis traveling at 60 mph at time of impact. Also imagine watching this from as close as 15-20 yds away.

 

[Ridgewalker]

Ridgewalker, thank you for sharing this. I can only imagine how difficult your loss must be.
The interstate I was on in this original post was I-24 that runs West out of Paducah...small world. In just the last year, they have put water barriers up at every overpass support between mile marker 1 and the Ohio River bridge outside Paducah. Little comfort to you and your family but this will undoubtedly save many others the loss you have experienced.

Small world indeed...

He was on 24...but I am not sure exactly where, he was heading from the mall down to Union City, TN. I do know there was another car that wrecked not too long after Jason's accident in the same spot, and yet another a few days later. They all missed the overpass support and were OK.

Turns out that spot was known to have water running over it after heavy rains and icing when it got cold enough. I guess enough folks finally died so they could do something about it. The fact that is was a known issue made it tough to accept.

Those barriers would have helped but honestly if he would have just put his seatbelt on he would have more than likely lived. He was one of those young fearless types and wouldn't listen to us old men. (me and our dad)

Thanks for the kind words, I was a little concerned I had killed this thread with my "downer" comment. Like you said if it saves someone else it is worth it.

 

[Ryan03]

Thank you for sharing that tragic story about your brother ridgewalker, please accept my deepest condolences. I was truly moved by your post, as my wife is due with our first child in 3 weeks. Although I usualy wear my seatbelt, I thought about all the times I am out working in the snow and ice storms, doing roadcalls on our highway plow trucks, and in a rush to get from one breakdown to another forget to put my seatbelt on from time to time. I thought long and hard about leaving my wife to raise our soon to be born child on her own, and never getting to see my little girl. From now on, I will make a much more conciouse effort to wear my seatbelt at all times. Thank you for opening my eyes Ridgewalker.