Hidden Danger: As the winter approaches drivers should be aware of the weather conditions and make driving adjustments accordingly. One of the most dangerous road conditons is black ice, which is invisible to drivers.

Although the weather has been unseasonably warm as of late, the winter months are usually filled with students struggling to get to school with icy windshields and snow covered roads.

While, most teenagers go through an extensive driving course, many do not take much away from it.  Mandy Doty ’13 said that the only thing she remembered from driving school was to “steer into the skid.”

According to the US Department of transportation 24% of vehicle crashes each year are caused by adverse weather conditions such as rain, sleet, snow or fog.

St. Jason Philhower of the West Lafayette Police Department cited excessive speeding as one of the main reasons for crashes in the winter.

“Driving what would be the speed limit in normal conditions is too fast for winter conditions,” he said.

St. Philhower said that the biggest mistake that is made in the winter months is not giving oneself a “safety margin,” the amount of space between you and the car in front of you.

While a normal safety margin would be two seconds, a margin of four-five seconds is better when driving in adverse conditions.

When speaking specifically about our high school, assistant principal Tim Slaughter said, “A lot of our accidents are people in a hurry to get out of the parking lot at the end of the school day.”

Experience also plays a major factor in the amount of accidents teens get into during the winter months.  “If it’s a person that’s only had their license for a short period of time and they got their licence in April, they haven’t driven much on icy roads or roads that would be snow covered,” said Mr. Slaughter.

“Understand that traffic around the building is much more congested the closer we get to 8:00, so leave five or ten minutes earlier and make sure your here on time,” he said. 

Safety Tips:

1. Allow enough time to get where you need to go

2. Slow down

3. Allow a larger margin of error

Sources:

http://www.ops.fhwa.dot.gov/weather/q1_roadimpact.htm