Winter Driving

Tom and Ray, as long as you’re scolding the knuckle heads that can’t be bothered with clearing their windows, how about the ones that don’t clear the headlights and taillights and then drive around in the dark and wonder why they can’t see anything or wonder why they were almost rear-ended!

Good point.
This is one of the the points I’ve tried to make about the LEARN TO DRIVE big picture. There’s so much more than just hopping into your living room couch and putting it in drive.

Those are the same people who have no clue their right side tire is low, what is the meaning of thier turn signal flashing rappidly or staying on, how to back into a parking spot ( yet they can back out ), etc. etc.

( next you’re at the gas pump using the squeegee on your widshield…also clean your tail & headlights of dust and bugs. You’ll be glad you did. )

They only clear that much off because that’s all the wipers will get. They have to get to Starbucks to get their $20 sip of coffee, and they’ll be darned if they have to spend 30 seconds clearing off their vehicle.

“They only clear that much off because that’s all the wipers will get.”

And, then they post the following question on Car Talk:
After I used my wipers (actually, they probably refer to them as “wippers”) to clear 8 inches of snow from my windshield, they stopped working. How much will this cost to fix?

As that TV comedian likes to say, “You can’t fix stupid”!

I’m fanatical about clean windows and lights. People don;t realize how much even dirty lights (even without a snow covering) can affect light output. The difference can be dramatic.

Some people do amazing things. A few weeks ago, just before Christmas, we had about 18 inches of snow here for the first time in 10 or 15 years. The next day I was driving along and saw some old guy in a big American sedan with 1/2 of the windsheild, hood, roof and trunk still covered in 18 inches of snow! Seriously, the guy had just cleared the snow off on side of the car.

they might first ask WHY they stopped working, THEN ask how much it’d cost to fix.

In NH it’s illegal to drive with snow covering the windows or even the roof. We’ve had problems with roof ice flying off on the highway and hitting the car behind. The cops iwll stop you if they see you, but some people still do it anyway.

It’s also illegal in NJ, along with using hand-held cell phones while driving.
It is also required that headlights be used whenever windshield wipers are in use.
Unfortunately, the amount of enforcement of all of these statutes is nill in NJ.

:-((

I like that law about headlights always being in use when the wipers are in use. I’d never heard that before.

Say the NH law on snow on car being enforced on NH RT101 this past Monday with statie pulling over kid with no coat who he had cleaning roof with 8"+ and back window with his bare hands while trooper stood back in a stance.

Kudos to the cop who made him do this. It’s a much better teaching method IMHO than a simple citation.

When in high school, my two daughters would get up with minutes to be in class. All the windows of their car were either covered with ice or snow. Rather than waste time, they would roll down the windows on each side, stick their heads out the window and go for it. 12 blocks to school.

Years later my neighbor told me. I asked the girls about that and they laughed. “Hey visibility was perfect and we had four eyes on the road.” Now they both are exceptionally careful about their driving and their vehicles.

Point being, I think you can grow out of stupid but if you stay that way, nothing and no one will change you.

Just this past week a piece of ice came off a truck on a NH highway and smashed the windshield and dented the roof of the car behind it. Fortunately, nobody was injured.

Another good reason to leave plenty of space between you and the guy in front of you.

but those 2 extra seconds are needed. :stuck_out_tongue:

Yup. They can get you to the funeral parlor years earlier.

As said many times by more people than I know, “Better late in this life than early to the next.”