More of Life's Little Irritants -- ReDux

[Bluerauder]

It's been nearly a year since the "Life Little Irritants" series. Here's another one that really Gets My Goat ..... :rolleyes:

Folks that Don't Clean Off Ice and Snow from their Car :mad:

We got a little snow and ice in the Maryland-DC-Virginia area on Sunday and Monday (only about 2 inches). It was enough to wreak havoc on the entire area -- lotsa accidents, spinouts, and SUVs in ditches. :( Fortunately, I was still at Fort Benning, GA so I got back after most of the damage was done. :D

Now here's the rub ... the irritating part. Many folks don't bother to clean the snow and ice off of their vehicle. I passed one guy in a Toyota Corolla that had only a "peek hole" cleared in the windshield and the entire back window was fully encrusted with snow and ice. The hood, roof and trunk were still covered as well. Aside from the obvious ---- "this guy can't see a darn thing out of his car problem", there's another issue to be considered.

As these folks get up to speed 25, 35, 40, 45, 50 .... miles per hour, air gets up under the ice crust and eventually causes a sheet of ice & snow to go airborne. I am sure that many of you have experienced this situation while following one of these folks. Ain't nothing like traveling down the highway and seeing a 3 by 3 sheet of 1"-2" ice coming straight for your windshield.

Just coming in to work today, I saw no less than 6 separate incidents of flying ice (4 in my direction and 2 coming from the opposite lane).

Come on folks ..... clean the car off and give the rest of us a break. :P

[Agent M79]

Ahhh yes, the old 'Cleveland High Hat' we'd call it.

Nothing like a few days accumulation coming off the hood or roof of a car. Spectacular.

What's worse is when the entire top of a 53' trailers come loose with you behind it. A rolling avalanche!

Admittedly, in my younger days I would drive around with a Cleveland High Hat specifically to get up to a speed juuuust fast enough to see it waft off the roof. Sorry, with youth comes folly.

[Joe Walsh]

It's been nearly a year since the "Life Little Irritants" series. Here's another one that really Gets My Goat ..... :rolleyes:

Folks that Don't Clean Off Ice and Snow from their Car :mad:


Now here's the rub ... the irritating part. Many folks don't bother to clean the snow and ice off of their vehicle. I passed one guy in a Toyota Corolla that had only a "peek hole" cleared in the windshield and the entire back window was fully encrusted with snow and ice. The hood, roof and trunk were still covered as well. Aside from the obvious ---- "this guy can't see a darn thing out of his car problem", there's another issue to be considered.

As these folks get up to speed 25, 35, 40, 45, 50 .... miles per hour, air gets up under the ice crust and eventually causes a sheet of ice & snow to go airborne. I am sure that many of you have experienced this situation while following one of these folks. Ain't nothing like traveling down the highway and seeing a 3 by 3 sheet of 1"-2" ice coming straight for your windshield.

Just coming in to work today, I saw no less than 6 separate incidents of flying ice (4 in my direction and 2 coming from the opposite lane).

Come on folks ..... clean the car off and give the rest of us a break. :P

I witnessed a young woman who found out the hard way a few weeks ago when we had a hard frost on the windsheilds one morning.
I was following her down the street when she came up on two cars on the shoulder.
One car was broken down and the vehicle behind was a Cadillac Escalade, whose owner had stopped to help the stranded motorist.
The Escalade owner swung open his door to step out and the woman in front of me smashed the Escalade's driver's door back against the front fender!!
The impact was accompanied by a HUGE BOOM! along with glass, plastic, and a mirror flying everywhere!!!
Luckily she did not hit the driver and he was OK.
When the woman stopped and pulled a U-turn to come back to the accident, we looked in amazement at her front windsheild:
She had a grapefruit sized hole cleared through the frost on the front windsheild!!!...:eek:
The rest of the car was covered in a heavy frost!!

[snowbird]

The worst i've seen a long time back is a guy with a snow covered car (4-5" at least). The guy managed to get in the car without cleaning anything, pull down the driver window, start and go. A mobile snowbank.

His head was peaking outside from the side window going in a city 4 lanes boulevard at about 30-40 mph. I encountered the guy on the other side of the divider, completely speechless ...

[Bigdogjim]

New Jersey passed a law, so now you can can/will get a ticket for driving a rolling snow blower.

[Bluerauder]

New Jersey passed a law, so now you can can/will get a ticket for driving a rolling snow blower.
Most states have such laws on the books regarding obstructed vision while driving. Unfortunately, most laws are only good if they are enforced and I suspect the police have higher priority efforts to pursue. One would hope that common sense would dictate the proper course of action for these "peep hole" and "top hat" driver's. However, it sure seems that common sense on our roads is in short supply these days.

It appears that with every smart feature added to a vehicle to improve safety that there is a corresponding offset in drivers getting dumber. :o

The "grapefruit hole" peeper is dayum lucky that she didn't kill the guy in the Escalade --- 'cause she would likely be serving time for manslaughter. :(

[Joe Walsh]

The "grapefruit hole" peeper is dayum lucky that she didn't kill the guy in the Escalade --- 'cause she would likely be serving time for manslaughter. :(


Oh yeah, and she knew it too!

She looked like she saw a ghost when she pulled up and opened her door.

[dwasson]

We had an ice storm last week. A lot of cars had the wipers frozen to the glass. But, our Kia Sedona has defroster wires on the windshield where the wipers park. Pretty cool feature. Hit the remote start, hit the defrost button, go out 5 minutes later to a warm car and the ice is loosening up on the glass.

[ckadiddle]

Glad I don't have to deal with that down here...sheesh. One more way to get killed on the road.