Lost in traction!
After 4 years living in the States. Today I learned that 32 degrees really means 0 degrees.
This morning Corvallis was at 32 degrees. I didn't pay especial attention to the fact that it was raining few hours ago. So when my wife was taking the kids to the school her car lost traction as soon as it touched the driveway. It was completely frozen. She couldn't react and the car crashed against one of our trees... Thanks to the tree the car didn't go further... the car got trapped and she couldn't move the car either forward or backward... the kids were inside but i coulnd't get to the car because the ice... when i managed to get to the car my son felt and fortunately I could catch him when he was just about slipping below the car...
I learned several lessons this morning:
- warm water doesn't help cars get traction on iced pavements (this was the solution proposed by my Indian neighbor)
- fertilizers don't help to get traction on iced pacement (this was
the solution proposed by my naturalist neighbor)
- sand for cats doesn't help to get traction in your wheels wheels
(this was the solution proposed by my pet lover neighbor)
- nothing better than chains to get you car with good traction
- chains are very easy to install in your car... but leave it to
your wife.... she can do much faster than you and your neighbor from the basque country together... and she doesn't need to read the instructions
- chevy tahoe isn't so good in icy roads
I remember a similar situation in Spain few years ago. Nobody helped
us. So I am very impressed about how our neighbors helped us out.
They are people who we even don't know their names or where they exactly
live. They were coming out to help. I think that this spirit is one
of the many things that make the States so great!
PS: btw, a colleague told me a lesson he learned few weeks ago: "Last week during an ice storm my Italian neighbor said I should throw a couple pizza's under the tires for better traction. Didn't work." So it seems that my neighborhood isn't the only one with original remedies for frozen driveways.
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