Mumsnet Talk

countrykitten I'm just going to go out for a non-essential journey (pick up my mountain bike from being serviced) on the scary, snow roads.

And say a wee prayer to whichever Finnish genius invented Nokian tyres

I crashed my car this morning. In about a cm of snow. I was on my driveway, having done the school run, and was parking, so doing 5mph? Only my car did not stop and slid into a tree. I was hardly driving like a cunt.

Hope you're ok. What a bugger.

Malinois
Is there not a problem with Winter tyres when the temperature is above 7 degrees though? I was joking today that with our climate we'd have to change our tyres every morning depending upon the temperature!

OP - there are people who are rubbish drivers in the snow, but the best driver in the world can't drive well if the car slides on ice. And if there is an accident or problem ahead, nomatter what standard your driving skills, you can't do anything about it!

Your self-righteous attitude is as irritating as sharing the road with a poor driver.

malinois

Your comment is only partly true

I have winter tyres on my alfa and have been able to drive quite easily past land rovers and other 4x4s that were stuck on icy hills however I would cannot agree that "its all about the tyres" having been in a bad crash on a bavarian mountain road in a four wheel drive audi with (brand new and very good) winter tyres because the arse driver thought he was invincible...

That's exactly it pendeen all the equipment in the world won't help if you're an arrogant know-it-all!

Winter tyres would help, of course they would,but we just don't get enough snow, regularly enough, to warrant the expense for most people.

Unless you are an essential member of the emergency services there are very very few people who can't just stay at home for one day. Honestly, so many people have such an over inflated sense of their own importance. The world won't stop turning if you take a day off, it really won't.

A few years ago, a couple of miles away from where I live, a nurse was killed in an accident on her way to work in the snow. The guy who hit her was on his way back from the supermarket.

I'm quite sure he was of the mindset - 'for god's sake, it's just a bit of snow, get a bloody grip.'

To be fair Randal, the guy might have just lost control on the snow. Terribly sad though.

I wanted to like your comment too

i don't know if the OP is BU because i didn't see what she saw

however i drifted over a junction this morning. i was driving gently, braked gently and nothing happened, braked harder so the ABS kicked in, still went over. fortunately no-one there, just an icy road surface.

cars these days do the job for you, so it wasn't my driving that put me over the junction - my initial speed was very slow.

FWIW it wasn't snowing yet when i went out, but i have walked the school pick up instead.

The thing is aj he shouldn't have been there. It wasn't essential that he went to the supermarket.

The nurse needed to be on the road, he didn't.

I was on an essential journey this morning (feeding animals), and managed a gentle slide towards a lovely ditch as I went round a corner at 20mph in low gear, in a 4X4 - no-one is immune from things like that, 4x4 or not. I agree that some, possibly the majority of shunts are from people just not thinking about what they are doing, but not all.

You understand the concept of ice/snow being slippery don't you OP? Fairly basic!

ajanddj The only problem with winter tyres over 7C is that they wear quicker as they are quite soft. So if you were to have them on year round they would wear out very quickly. Just having them on for 3-4 months of the year, when the temperature is pretty low anyway, isn't a problem.

pendeen Agreed. I always modify my driving behaviour for the conditions - including braking earlier and taking corners at a lower speed. And I especially take care when driving with new tyres on, as in the unfortunate accident that you were involved in, as they extremely slippery until they have had 100 dry miles.

The fact is that I can stop my car dead while descending a 15% road covered in snow and ice while it's got it's winter boots on - if I tried that with summer tyres I would only eventually stop some 300m later, through a hedge, amongst some very surprised looking cows.

Randall as sad as it is that someone died, I really don't think that it's a responsible attitude to take a day off every time it snows.

People should get some snow tyres/chains if they're not good at driving in snow but suggesting everyone stays at home every time it snows is just silly.

Randall - do you think everyone who is not essential member of the emergency services should stay at home, or just Brits? I don't think your average German or Swiss would get very much work done if they followed your daft rule.

Narked - you were very rude.

We're not in Germany or Switzerland though are we, what a ridiculous thing to say!

We very very rarely get enough snow for main roads to be dangerous. On the odd, once every couple of years, occasion we do then either walk or stay at home.

Why is it ridiculous? Do you think that the Swiss and the Germans are somehow genetically inclined to be able to drive on snow?

It is not dangerous out there, unless you are, essentially, stupid or hysterical. The problem in this country is that drama-llamas rule and everyone loses the head over the slightest bit of snow/heat/rain/whatever.

I crashed in the snow last year and I was going slow as possible in first gear.

It happens to the best drivers, but I have seen (while walking ) people driving like utter cunts today.

Randall - the fact that we only rarely get heavy snow (which I would dispute, particularly over the last 3-4 years) is irrelevant. If people living a few hundred miles away on the other side of 20 miles of water can cope with it, then we are perfectly capable of doing so to.

I hate driving in the snow. The fist times ever drove in the snow I writ the car off, and that was just pulling out of a traffic light operated junction.

My journey was not essential, I was picking the DC up from school, could have been avoided. Three years later, I walk whenever I snows.

Saying that, there are some right knobends out there, boy racers who still speed, still get right up behind you and still overtake you on blind bends.

They are far more experienced than we are and the cars are better equipped to deal with it. Thats just common sense.

The attitude of your last sentence is everything that pisses me off about a certain type of British arrogance that comes out in this sort of situation.

It's perfectly possible for most people to be neither of those extremes and just take sensible precautions.

YANBU.
I have just walked back from the supermarket, there are cars sliding all over the place, spinning their wheels & revving madly. Stupid.

Randall - I'm not British, hence why I'm possibly not scared of snow. I'm very happy for you and others to stay at home if it snows. Just don't tell me that I should too - that's arrogance.

Randall it's nothing to do with arrogance or with the cars. You need snow tyres, that's all. Put them on at the start of winter, take them off at the start of spring.

What's the issue?

I'm not arrogant, I'm just sick of the hysteria that descends every time there's any snow.