Icy Roads

There was a huge one on the east end of the Skyway, 25 cars involved from what we heard. It looked nasty from the other side, that really sucks.

Crap - sorry - my post should have read "accident on NB 75."

I came through there on the way to the Anderson's Closeout and there were only 5 or 6 involved. A person in the left lane going sligtly faster than me started to slow down and went into a spin and slid right into 3 cars sitting there. A cop car coming from the other way went sideways. Anderson's was sold out and when I came back through, the southbound freeway was totally shut down with over 3 times the vehicles involved.

I drive a lot due to work. Maybe 20,000 miles a year. I drove in that stuff yesterday just before all hell broke loose. The thing that I see all the time, is people "over driving" their cars. I don't think that they teach physics anymore.

Specifically in the stretch of I-75 from Toledo to Detroit, because of the lake; and in Toledo on I-75 due to the curves and overpasses, it's particularly dangerous. The overpasses cast a shadow, and they are often over a curve in Toledo. You hit a patch of ice in the shadow of the overpass and you are also having the forces of the turn. If it is really slick, I'll route around I-75 through Toledo.
North of Michigan, (The busiest stretch of interstate in the US) the fast lane ices up first, because most traffic slows down and moves to the right. The plows work from the shoulder in, so the fast lane is always first to get sketchy. People are flying up the fast lane at 80 mph, passing two lanes of traffic going like 55, and they suddenly lose their lane and have nowhere to go. And they probably have the cruise control on. Eeek. So they try to slow down..... and they're done. I try really hard to find and stay in pockets with no cars around me when the opportunity presents itself. Lowers my exposure and reduces the stress. I have probably seen 25 spinouts and a couple of crashes in the last five years personally. (You learn the notoriusly bad spots, like the day I saw 5 cars in the valley between the I-75 lanes at the Trail. They try to get on at highway speeds but that curve and dip gets em.
Last week, I followed a person off an exit in downriver and they had damage on every side, and their front bumper in the trunk, hanging out. Flashers on, for safety. :)

When an icy spot suddenly appears under my wheels, I repeat those famous words "stay the course" and delay any input until the chances of success are greater. I think about sports like curling or hockey.

People drive like they live their lives. little forethought, poor planning, minimal skills and then overreaction.

Your observations are spot on justread [so are yours Star56]. Yesterday was an unusual one weather wise.

We left Toledo about 9:30AM heading NB on 75 with the ultimate destination being downtown Plymouth via Ann Arbor Trail. Many snow squalls, spotty in nature. For several miles you'd have bright sunshine, no precip and nothing on the roads then you'd drive into whiteout conditions and glare ice. As I told my passengers when we left Toledo, this is going to be an interesting drive. And, as soon as I saw what the conditions were, I drove as though the entire route was greased glass. In many places it was.

While many of the surface streets in the Plymouth-Canton area were slick, people were actually exercising caution - even on Ford Rd. (for those of you familiar with Ford Rd. on a Saturday morning/afternoon).

But the fun began when we headed home from my sister in law's place in Canton about 1:30. Same kind of odd conditions along SB 275 - slick, couple inches of snow on the shoulders and, depending on the stretch, only one of the three lanes "clear" but the "clear" lane varied from mile to mile. Many cars spun off into the median and ditches - some severely so. But I've never seen anything like the pileup on NB 75. Mangled masses of metal everywhere, more police cars and emergency vehicles than I've ever personally seen. It made you sick thinking of the injuries and likely loss of life. However, the Blah reported no serious injuries. If that is indeed the case, I thank God for it. The visual certainly suggested otherwise.

It's plain and simple, slow down. I am guilty of it myself, you don;t realize your driving too damn fast for the conditions. I drive slower than I used to and definitely slow down for the conditions now. You just have to slow down or take your chances with the ditches and guardrails. I don't care how well you think you can drive even Mario Andretti can't drive so well on ice, he's probably smart enough not to try passing in the left lane covered with snow and ice.

"Ford Rd. on a Saturday morning/afternoon"

Ford Rd at the #25 275 exit any damn time!!!

I used to live right off the Ford Rd/I-275 exit.

Was awhile ago - it was my first place of my own after graduating college.

It was busy around there even way back then - I can't even imagine how the traffic has compounded since Ikea was built!

(I used to do my grocery shopping at the Super KMart that was on the property where Ikea is now located.)

Its really funny when a car is going 50mph because the roads are bad, then get tailgated by an SUV, only to see that the SUV has spun out a little further ahead. Also if you are riding my bumper, I slow down even more, so your better off either going around me, or just slowing down and arriving safely, albeit a little late. This is one thing that drives me freaking nuts! I had this jerk off in a red ford pick-up truck with one burned out headlight on my rear end on RT 20. It was wet, slippery, dark and very windy (remember the lady and her 9month old baby that got killed a couple weeks back - well it was on that stretch) So this jerk off, won't go around me, even though he has had 2 chances, so what does he do, he puts his brights on and leave them on, I'm thinking yea, OK, that's really going to make me speed up, so by the time he did get an opening to go around me, i was down to 35mph. Couldn't be helped, he blinded me.