de_boer_man Posted December 28, 2004 Share Posted December 28, 2004 On Sunday, 19 December, I was driving home from Logan, Utah kind of late. At about 11:00, I was headed south on I-15 in Ogden right where I-84 splits off and goes east. I came around a blind right corner, and suddenly, dry roads turned to a big sheet of black ice. Off to the right, a car was flipped over on its hood. There was an "emergency response" vehicle there along with a police car that were blocking the right lane. The next two lanes had a car sliding sideways in them, spinning slowly, but still moving sideways at probably 20 or 25 miles per hour. Behind that car was a truck that was going about 30 miles an hour. To keep from crashing into that car, the truck pulled directly in front of me. I was going about 55 or 60 miles per hour. I hit my brakes hard, in hopes that I could avoid plowing into the back of the truck. The road was still curving to the right, and I saw a concrete barrier directly in front of me. I wasn't slowing down at all (blasted ice!!!) and I just knew I was going to hit the barrier going 50 miles per hour. But then I realized that I still had complete control of the car! I had my foot on the brake as hard as I could press, but I could still steer. I steered around the truck in the emergency lane, passing another car that was off in the median facing the wrong direction. Its trailer had detached and was another hundred yards down the road. When I passed the truck, I pulled back onto the main roadway, all the while still pressing on the brake pedal. A half mile later, the roads were completely dry again. I'm completely sold on all-wheel drive and antilock brakes now. If I had been driving one of my Saturns, I would have hit a concrete barrier quite hard, totaling the car and probably injuring one or more of us in the process, but the Subaru handled well. It couldn't slow down on a solid block of ice, but it could still steer and manouver us out of a rather scary situation. It turns out that they were doing cloud seeding by the Ogden airport, which can make surrounding roads quite slick. There were 30 accidents on 1/2 mile of I-15 on that Sunday night/Monday morning. I love my Subaru! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
northguy Posted December 28, 2004 Share Posted December 28, 2004 This sounds like a testimony to send to SOA. Glad you survived unscathed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cougar Posted December 28, 2004 Share Posted December 28, 2004 Good story but pretty scarey. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
de_boer_man Posted December 28, 2004 Author Share Posted December 28, 2004 This sounds like a testimony to send to SOA. Glad you survived unscathed. I already did. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gbhrps Posted December 31, 2004 Share Posted December 31, 2004 de_boer_man, We're so pleased that you came out unscathed from this incident! God knows we can always use good news. It reaffirms the decision I made to own my two OBW's in an area where there are no others to be found (closest dealer 70 miles away). It makes up for the sneers I endure everytime I go to my favourite coffee spot, driving one of the safest vehicles on the road for the money! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JT95 Posted December 31, 2004 Share Posted December 31, 2004 I drove a Subie in the winter elements for the first time last week. We live in KY, but my wife is from northern OH, so we were up there last week before Christmas. After passing through Columbus--heading north--Wednesday morning, the snow started. By that afternoon/evening the gound and roads were covered in deep, deep snow. That night a crust of ice covered everything as well. I was impressed with how my 95 Subie wagon did in the snow. Most of the road driving was over iceed over packed snowy roads, and there's only so much any car can do on ice. My tires are far from snow worthy tires (they are in need of being replaced), so I would have loved seeing what the car could do with appropriate tires. My only gripe was ground clearance. I have a Legacy, and my undercarriage drug, which was not always pleasant because some of the stuff we went over/through was hard packed and iced over. I only got hung up once--in my brother-in-law's driveway, which was 1.5 feet of hard snow with two ice-slick tire paths cut by a 4x4 pickup. (I think my lack of ground clearance is what hurt me there.) My brother-in-law is a die-hard UAW man, so I'm sure he was thrilled to help me give my Japenese car a nudge. My wife was glad that the car got hung, though, because that allowed her to slide behind the wheel and take over for the rest of the day. Most of the roads we traveled in OH were never salted or scraped, which both surprised an annoyed me. Most saw no attention until after day 2. We headed south on Saturday. I have never seen so many cars stranded on the sides and in the middle of the interstate. It looked like the aftermath of a war zone. I didn't see a single Subie abandoned and covered in snow, though... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
howards11 Posted December 31, 2004 Share Posted December 31, 2004 AWD & ABS ............ THE BEST !! ~Howard Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seahag1978 Posted January 1, 2005 Share Posted January 1, 2005 I'm glad to hear that you made it out with no issues... I had a few hairy trips where the ice came from nowhere. My lil old Brat 4 speed would go through anything that wasn't OVER the front bumper... midway is ok, after that, all bets off, depends on the density... I imagine you would experience the same with the weight factor. Ice? Just get on the shoulder and keep 1 or 2 wheels on the snowy part, you'll get through, no damage, just watch out for the SUV drivers that think they can drive on anything! They seem to have a false sense of security. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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