Driving with snow on your car – it’s snow joke

More importantly, it’s dangerous to others if it slides off the back, especially if they’re on two wheels.

I agree. In Germany, for instance, it is illegal to drive with any snow on the roof. Obvious! Only some halfwits here would not think of clearing it

“Astounding when you consider it is an area with a dense number of young pedestrians.”
It’s also dangerous when passing cyclists.

“BTW Julie Do you have winter tyres?”
This is a question that’s been going through my head (not Julie specifically, all road users). I have studded winter tyres on my bike and I suspect that I have better stopping ability than most cars on icy roads. That’s of some concern.
Winter tyres aren’t a legal requirement in the UK but should they be?

I am guessing that it’s the person who cleared only a small amount of snow from her Audi windscreen, but we do need an answer.

Oops – cousins name is Julie Evans. I was curious about Ms Claire Evans tyres. Nothing other than idle curiosity as she may live in a an area without problems and be following Which? recommendations..

Why many people seem to get away with pouring kettles of hot water on their windscreens is one of life’s great unexplained mysteries. Why they are daft enough to do this is another.

My approach is to clear the car last thing at night and to use a decent quality scraper. There is often little to be done in the morning.

Another problem with the kettle technique is that, in frosts like we have been having over the last two weeks, the water rapidly loses its heat and very soon freezes where it lands, including along the wiper edge and in the gulley between the windscreen and the bonnet.

I have notioced a strange piece of behaviour lately – the car is covered in snow except for the number plates which have been carefully wiped to reveal the vehicle’s identification. Partial knowledge of the legal requirements I suspect and presumed immunity from enforcement.

Ah, but if the lights are not cleared also, there is no immunity.

Yes, with a rapid deceleration of the vehicle, if the snow has lost its adhesion to the roof it continues travelling at speed and will descend in a big lump in front of the driver. Same occurs, of course, with loose things inside the vehicle [as testified by the bashed up mail-order parcels we all complain about]. Bad weather [especially when visibility is impaired by snow on the roof and sides] is more likely to give rise to an emergency brake application so there’s a lot more to think about than cleaning the light clusters and hoping the engine’s heat will deal with everything else.

If you drive off with snow on the roof of your car it will come off sooner or later, either forwards when you brake or backwards under normal driving. It may seem firmly frozen in place at first but of course as the interior of the car warms up the lowermost layer of snow/ice melts and becomes quite efficiently lubricated.

I’m not sure how white van man could clear the snow off the roof of his van, even if he was disposed to doing so. No comment about the joke. 🙂

or a onesie?

I suggest that the best use of ‘onesies’ could be to put them under the wheels to gain traction if stuck in the snow.

What about if the occupant is Nick Clegg?

Jim

Surely it is obvious that driving in snow increases the risk of death and injury and places extra demand on our emergency services.

Perhaps it would be useful for people to learn to drive in snow and how to deal with skids (deserted car parks are ideal), but the priority should be to keep off the roads if possible in adverse conditions.

I also try to avoid driving on busy roads at rush hours. Maybe the fact that I have been a motorcyclist and was left with a permanent injury in 1975 helped make me realise that I am not invulnerable. If you, your family or a friend has an accident as a result of driving in snow you might decide that it’s best to avoid driving in snow. But yes, I agree that training could be useful.

Anyone who has driven a motorcycle or ridden a bike for any length of time will know something about risk management. It certainly helped me.

The fact that we have to share the roads is the biggest problem. If everyone behaved sensibly, understood their own limitations and those of their vehicle, that would help avoid a lot of accidents, and not just when there is snow on the roads.

I’ve lost track of “day running lights” which some manufacturers have been fitting as standard for years – are they now compulsory for new vehicles, or is this still in the “too difficult” tray?

Daytime running lights are now fitted as standard. I wish that all vehicle exterior lighting was designed to be practical and effective rather than decorative. The ones that look like a string of fairy lights amuse me. Maybe the next design will twinkle like a Christmas tree.

Thanks Wavechange for that update. I agree with you on the appearance of them. They are there to enable the car to be seen, not to illuminate the road ahead or dazzle other road users. A large round lamp with diffused lens [as once fitted as sidelights on buses or as indicators on Rolls-Royces] would be ideal – can still be an LED light of course.

There’s a difference between ‘running lights’ as sproted by Volvos for decades and fog lights, the use of which is illegal unless it’s very foggy: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1989/1796/regulation/27/made

That doesn’t stop them round our way (but we’re talking Croydon). You see a lot of cars with just fogs on, some with fogs on and one headlight failed, or vice versa, or just about any other combination you can think of. When it was snowy it was usually this brigade who’d be about 18″ from your rear bumper pushing to overtake and wrap themselves round the next tree.

You see cops driving on front fogs in sunny weather, so there’s no hope.