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Black Ice, The Great Equalizer: Take Two
We're having one hell of an ice storm in Albany right now, and according to the weather report on the news, it's not just us. Snow, sleet and ice are piling up from Poughkeepsie to the Adirondacks. With the predicted heavy icing, I fully expect to get called out tonight for downed power lines or worse. In fact, I'm wearing my heavy " the only ones that make my fire boots fit" heavy ski socks as I type this. My keys, pager, cell phone and boots are lined up near the front door and will remain there until I get up for work in the a.m.
My ride home from work today was The White Knuckle Express. I'm not normally worried about MY driving, it's the other drivers who scare me. To wit: I live in a small village in a pretty rural area Southwest of Albany. There are two options to get to my destination....one takes me WAY out of my way from downtown, the other is a much more direct route, but the main artery includes one MONSTROUS downhill followed immediately by an Alp-like climb. The key to negotiating this hill in adverse weather conditions is (drumroll please) do not touch your brakes. It's a pretty straight shot downhill. As long as there isn't anyone ahead of you doing something foolish like slamming on their brakes and skidding off the road, you can usually take your foot off the gas, take a deep breath, use your Kung-fu grip on the steering wheel , whisper a silent prayer and off you go..... You can't slow yourself down because you won't have enough forward momentum built up to scale the climb on the other side. All of this is completely valid, until you add ice into the mix, at which point there ARE no rules for negotiating Rt. 155. I made the hill, but not because of any spectacular driving skills on my part. It was sheer luck, mixed in with a soupcon of equal parts bravado and stupidity. I had so much adrenaline built up in my system by the time I got home all I could taste in my mouth was tin foil.
My point is this: Ice is nasty stuff. If we get called out tonight, I have two drivers in my department that I pray show up to drive first, because I know they'll drive with the conditions in mind and won't do anything stupid.
When you're dealing with ice, you're dealing with a ruthless opponent. Lives can be irrevocably changed in the blink of an eye or a hastily applied brake. Be safe, be smart, drive mindfully, wear your seatbelt, don't become the problem.
Mel
Dec. 11, 2008
We had a lovely ice storm last night here in Smallbany, which forced me to spend several more hours than I care to discuss chipping and scraping two inches of sheet ice from the driveway so that I could get to an appointment today. (And you missed my interpretation of An American Ballet on Ice trying to get around the back of the van...did you know you can cruise at 25 mph in slippers on a 10 degree incline on blacktop? Did you know that the chances of your neighbor witnessing this is multiplied by the number of reindeer on the ridiculous jammie pants you wore outside because you'd only be out there "for a minute" ?)
All of this got me to thinking about driver safety, specifically as it applies to emergency services. See, most of us with half a brain (and for those of us with split personalities, and we know who we are, {what? did you say something??} divide that by quantum mass) see that there is ice on the road, there are multiple pileups on the highway and it's a free-for-all rodeo on the local roads and make the intelligent decision to brew another cup of tea, take a closer look at the daily newspaper and wait it out.
First responders don't have that luxury. You have to get there, and you want to get there in one piece, but your radio snapped to life, it's a big one, and your adrenaline just amped through the roof. Let's just say you make it to the station, and you have enough guys to make the call....I have two words for you....
Black Ice.
You'll never see it until the back end of your rig is suddenly in your lap. This is the season for it, ,so PLEASE...give your family and friends the gift of your continued existence.....If the roads were wet during the day, and the air temp has rapidly cooled to less than freezing, and you see that nasty little ground fog creeping around the edges of the road....slow down. Make sure your seatbelt is securely fastened and your tray table is in the upright and locked position and that all personal items are properly stowed (oh, sorry, that was me in another life). Black Ice is the great equalizer. I don't give a damn if you're the second coming of Richard Petty or Ricky Bobby, you can't beat black ice, but you can survive it if you slow the hell down.
Originally published December 2008Add a Comment
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Comment by Engine 32 Capt. on December 12, 2008 at 7:40am
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"We need screwballs like you around to make the rest of us look sane".
LOL. I love it. I will most certainly make an effort to use that at some point during my shift today.
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Comment by Dave, NB 9 on December 12, 2008 at 6:46am
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"LET ME TELL YA SOMETHING" >>>> LOL
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Comment by Mary Ellen Shea on December 12, 2008 at 4:13am
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Hey Dustin,
Well, I did say at the start of this blog that it was probably going to be a busy night.
Me and my big mouth.
It's 4:00 a.m. and I just got home from call # 5 tonight for downed power lines, and I don't think we're done for the night. The same driver has responded to all the calls tonight and I'd trust him with my mother's life.
He gets us on scene, but he's not a reckless driver and he's been taking the road conditions into account. We've been dodging trees and branches across the road all night, with almost 1 inch of ice on the roads.
If you're responding to a call, get there, but get there safely and sanely. If you DON'T have to be out on a night like tonight....stay home.
Thanks for the feedback.
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Comment by Dustin J. Millis on December 12, 2008 at 3:43am
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Black Ice is a great equalizer---thats no lie!!!!!!! Last January, I was on my way to FF 1 and 2 class with a buddy of mine. Not 3 miles from the department, hit some black ice and went slidin. Didnt turn the wheel, didnt touch my brakes, didnt touch the gas, but we ended up rolling through a ditch, rolling out, then rolling a few more times through a cornfield. Imagine how stupid you feel when YOUR OWN deparment is extricating you from your vehichle.
The real stupid part was that I had permission from my chief to skip that class due to bad road conditions seeing that the class was about twenty miles away. I decided that I wanted to learn about fire extinguishers real bad that night and went for it. I guess my real advice here is during winter time especially, dont do any more driving then is neccessary. Wait, did I spell necesseary right, I dont think so LOL Oh well
STAY SAFE
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Comment by LadyChaplain on December 13, 2007 at 11:02pm
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I'll see what I can do....
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Comment by Art "ChiefReason" Goodrich on December 11, 2007 at 8:48am
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American Ballet?
I was thinking more like "Dizzy On Ice".
I am sitting here this morning, waiting for the worst of an ice storm to move in. Earlier this year, in February, we had an ice storm that knocked out power for 3 days.
I am fortunate to have a company cell phone and wireless computer, so my work is never too far away.
I am sure rescue crews have been busy, because in my part of the world, the motoring public is populated with complete, blithering idiots. They will wind up in the ditch today, because they will not heed warnings to stay home, will juggle the usual distractions while driving and will get pissed because someone is driving too SLOW.
Ah; it's great to be here.
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This definitely rings a bell for me!
Last night we too had the ice storm, but it hit rather early on in the evening. I recall my pager going off and I slipped around on the ice getting to the car. My dad had just come home so fortunately the ice wasn't a huge deal on the windows... but when I got out onto the road it was another story. I did a nifty little fishtail right outside my door, but other than that I got to the firehouse safely.
On the otherhand, we were going to an MVA on the FARRRRRRR side of the district and had to take the rescue (full size rescue engine) roughly a mile on a skating rink. It was definitely an eye opening experience as we sort of slid out way to the call.
I will admit (and will probably be yelled at for this!) but I wasn't wearing my seatbelt (on the engine, I had it properly fastened in the car)... but I was sure as hell holding on. It got me to thinking that had our rookie driver (this was his first time out on the engine in inclement weather) not been so careful, our boys would have been responding to two MVAs.
Damn you black ice!!!!
(And to add insult to injury, when I got home I had to scrape the other two vehicles in the driveway to avoid immense ice build up! Can't a girl catch a break around here?! lol).
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