After years of covering severe winter weather as a TV reporter, telling viewers not to go outside if they didn't have to and warning drivers to go slowly on icy or snowy roads, it finally happened: I ended up being the jackass who drove into a ditch during a snowstorm!
It all started when my place of work sent people home early because the snow was really coming down. A line of cars created a mass exodus for the one road that led away of campus. As a result of the waiting many of the smaller, lighter cars got stuck going uphill and needed a helping hand/push from me (and others.) The car I was driving (an SUV) had no such problems, making me glad Helen had suggested I take it to work instead of my other car (a sedan.) It also made me confident that the rest of my ride home would be a piece of cake. How wrong I would be...
Once I got out onto the main road, I got stuck following a very 'careful' driver, who was going about 5 MPH. As we started going down a hill, the driver came to a complete stop, which pissed me off because I felt it was a dangerous maneuver since there were also cars behind me. My east coast driving-in-snow instincts also told me that when going down a hill, it's best to continually move so as not to slide. I was incredulous as I believed this idiot was just stopping because they were scared, so I decided to go around them and pass on the right. Big mistake.
Since there was fresh snow on the ground and very little traction, I started to slide uncontrollably to the right, right into a ditch nose-first. I tried to get out but only managed to sink deeper into trouble. Despite the best efforts of a few burly dudes who stopped to help push my car back onto the road, the weight of my SUV, the angle of the road (graded toward the ditch) and the lack of traction under the wheels made my car slide back into the ditch.
Remember that 'idiot' driver in front of me? Turns out they stopped because a metro bus coming up the hill had jackknifed and was blocking both lanes of traffic (the long way across the road.) So even if I had successfully gotten by the slow-poke, I still would have had to stop because of the bus. Oops.
After a few futile attempts to get my SUV out, I gave up, abandoned my ride and walked about 3 miles home. Later that evening I called and got through to the one local tow truck company that didn't have a six-hour waiting list of customers who were in the same predicament as me. Nearly 7 hours after my ordeal started, the tow truck pulled my car out and I drove the car back home. Very slowly.
My buddy Jae heard about what happened and texted me a three-letter question: "DWA?" My answer was no I was not, in fact 'Driving While Asian.' :) Rather, it was my perfect storm of overconfidence, arrogance and impatience during the first big winter storm of the year that led me off the road and into an embarrassing and unforgettable story. It made me feel a little like this:
*NOTE: The SUV below is not ours, but it crashed during the same batch of winter snow making me feel less like a doofus, which is why I posted it :)
