WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2018
HERMISTONHERALD.COM • A9
NEWS
Winter driving techniques can help prevent crashes
By JADE MCDOWELL
STAFF WRITER
Every winter, drivers are
told to slow down and ease
up on the brakes in slip-
pery conditions. And every
winter, vehicles end up in a
ditch anyway.
Some crashes are hard
to prevent — even a slowly
moving car can sometimes
slide out of control on ice —
but following certain prac-
tices can greatly reduce the
chance of a crash.
Steve Anderson teaches
driver’s education classes
to Hermiston High School
students. Barring a freak
snowstorm in July, students
won’t get to practice driving
on ice during the class, but
they do have a unit in which
they discuss safe driving in
bad conditions.
Anderson said the first
piece of advice would be
to avoid driving on bad
roads in the first place. If
it’s important you do go
out, slow and steady is the
key. Intersections are prob-
lem spots, so gently slow-
ing down well ahead of a
red light will give it time to
turn green.
“I tell them, don’t charge
a red light. Just drive slowly
and you’ll never have to
stop at an intersection,”
Anderson said.
He recommended not
using the brakes on ice, but
using the engine to slowly
down-shift instead. Even in
an automatic, taking your
foot off the accelerator and
down-shifting to second,
and then first gear can pro-
vide more control than hit-
ting the brakes.
If students do begin to
slide, he tells them to look
toward a “target” they want
the car to go toward and
keep that in the center of
their steering wheel.
“Ninety percent of the
time your car goes where
your head goes,” he said.
“The best advice
is to stay three car
lengths behind and
give yourself more
time to get where
you are going.”
Jim Forquer, operations
chief for Umatilla County
Fire District 1
Anderson cautioned that
a four-wheel drive vehicle
makes people feel invinci-
ble on icy roads, but they’re
not.
“It just means four
wheels are spinning instead
of two,” he said.
Gene Long, manager of
Bert’s Auto Salvage & Tow-
ing in Hermiston, can attest
to that. During the winter of
2016 the business responded
to 22 rollover crashes in 24
hours and only one of the
vehicles was not four-wheel
drive. In that case, the crash
had been caused by another
vehicle that did have four-
wheel drive.
“Just because you have
four-wheel drive, you might
be able to take off faster, but
you’re not going to stop any
faster,” he said.
Towing
companies
always see a big uptick in
business when the weather
turns bad. To avoid hav-
ing to call Bert’s or another
towing company, Long said
people need to leave the
house earlier than they usu-
ally do so they don’t feel the
need to rush. If there’s frost
on your windshield, he said,
expect frost on the road.
“You just have to use
common sense,” he said.
Long said one thing that
stands out to him is how
unprepared some drivers
are in a crash. He’s picked
up people in flimsy paja-
mas and slippers who have
been waiting in the cold for
an hour. He recommended
people keep an emergency
blanket, snacks and water
in their vehicle in case they
STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS
Traffic heads west bound on Interstate 84 after an early-morning storm dropped some snow in the Blue Mountains on Friday
near Meacham.
go off the road somewhere
remote. Dressing in proper
footwear and a coat, and
making sure your phone
is charged every time you
leave the house in the winter
will help you be prepared in
the event something unex-
pected goes wrong.
“They call it an accident
for a reason,” he said. “Peo-
ple don’t plan to get in one.”
In some cases, a crash
will result in injuries. Even
if there are no injuries, if
your car slides off the road
Long recommended calling
law enforcement dispatch to
let them know that the crash
occurred but there are no
injuries, so they that have
that information when pass-
ersby are calling in reports
of a car off the road and
they have to decide whether
to pull resources off another
crash.
Jim Forquer, operations
chief for Umatilla County
Fire District 1, said when
emergency vehicles are
responding to the large num-
ber of crashes that occur
every time roads are bad,
it is important that drivers
pay attention and get out of
the way as quickly as possi-
ble to prevent a crash on the
way to the crash.
Fire district staff are
trained on how to drive on
snowy or icy roads in an
ambulance or fire truck,
but that doesn’t make them
immune to sliding if some-
one pulls out in front of
them.
He said people can help
themselves by not wait-
ing until it snows to buy
new tires or chains, or put
on their studded tires. Bald
tires don’t do well on ice.
Other maintenance prob-
lems, such as worn-out
windshield wiper blades,
can also cause problems in
a storm.
High speeds on inter-
states and highways add
extra risk to winter driving.
The Oregon Department of
Transportation works hard
to use plows, salt and other
methods to make the roads
as safe as possible during
the winter, but the depart-
ment also put out a guide to
winter driving in 2017 ask-
ing drivers to do their part.
Passing snow plows on
the right has always been
dangerous (and, on state
highways, illegal), and with
the more-efficient dual-wing
snowplows being added to
the fleet, passing on the left
can be dangerous too. Snow
being kicked up can obscure
the plow blade that extends
8 feet to the side of the cab,
causing vehicles to hit it.
That damages the driver’s
vehicle, but also makes the
roads less safe for everyone
as the plow has to be pulled
off duty for repairs.
“Drivers should give
winter maintenance vehi-
cles such as plows and sand-
ers a wide berth,” the ODOT
guide states. “They travel
slowly but pull over period-
ically to let traffic pass. The
best advice is to stay three
car lengths behind and give
yourself more time to get
where you are going.”
In addition to com-
mon-sense guidelines, such
as slowing down, follow-
ing at a safe distance, giving
semitrucks extra room, turn-
ing off cruise control, wear-
ing a seat belt and not driv-
ing distracted or drowsy,
ODOT also recommends
that people practice put-
ting on chains before need-
ing them, so that they can
put them on quickly in an
emergency.
They strongly discour-
age stopping on the side
of the roadway, particu-
larly in bad weather. If you
must stop, pull over to the
right as far as possible and
turn and lock the steering
wheel away from the road-
way so that the vehicle is
not pushed into traffic if
struck from behind. Turn on
safety flashers and use flares
or reflective triangles, plus
reflective clothing, if avail-
able. Anyone who doesn’t
need to be outside the car
should remain inside with
their seat belts on.
ODOT asks that people
keep an eye on road con-
ditions (available at www.
tripcheck.com) and never
move road closure barriers.
The department also
advises proper use of
lights. Turning on head-
lights during rain, snow,
dusk or cloudy days helps
other drivers — such as a
semitruck driver getting
ready to change lanes — see
your car more quickly. Fog
lights are brighter and aimed
low, which can help driv-
ers see the lines on the road
better in fog, but should be
switched off when a vehi-
cle is approaching from the
opposite direction.
For more information
on safe winter driving visit
w w w. o r e g o n . g o v / o d o t /
pages/winter-driving.aspx.
GOOD LUCK
BUCKS!
GO BUCKS!
Go Bucks!
Pendleton
Book CO.
RAYMOND JAMES
FINANCIAL SERVICES, INC.
Member FINRA/SIPC
305 SW Dorion Ave.
Pendleton, OR 97801
8797 W. Gage Blvd., Ste. C-103
Kennewick, WA 99336
541-276-9184 • 800-276-9184
www.RaymondJames.com/JohnCimmiyotti
Good Luck Bucks!
INSURANCE CENTER, INC.
Insuring Eastern Oregon
For Over 30 Years
www.wheatlandins.com
Pendleton • Athena • Hermiston
Heppner • Ione • La Grande • Enterprise
Elgin • Baker City • Condon
541-276-0250
2461 SW Perkins Ave
Pendleton, OR 97801
Sorbenots
Coffee
402 SE 9th St.
Pendleton, OR 97801
541-278-1678
(541) 276-9292
125 S. Main St., Pendleton, OR
Tue.-Fri. 9:30-5:30, Sat. 9:30-5:00,
Closed Sun. & Mon.
Go Bucks!
Gordon’s
ELECTRIC, INC.
ELECTRICAL • COMMERCIAL
RESIDENTIAL • INDUSTRIAL
214 SE Emigrant, Pendleton
541-276-3154
Go Bucks!
2801 St. Anthony Way, Pendleton, OR 97801
www.sahpendleton.org
Philip W.
Reeves, D.C.
1 980
38 2018
YEARS
Chiropractor
Pendleton, Oregon
541- 278 - 2225
249 S. Main, Pendleton
541-276-6988
Cari Broker
HAVE A GREAT
SEASON!
541-567-2603 • 905 Diagonal • Hermiston
www.osokleen.com
GO
T IGER S COTS !
The
Sugar
Shack
ts!
o
c
s
r
e
g
i
T
G o
353 E. Main St., Athena, OR
541-566-0434
Go TigerScots!
Pendleton
Book CO.
Good Luck TigerScots!
Go TigerScots!
INSURANCE CENTER, INC.
Insuring Eastern Oregon
For Over 30 Years
(541) 276-9292
www.wheatlandins.com
125 S. Main St., Pendleton, OR
Tue.-Fri. 9:30-5:30, Sat. 9:30-5:00,
Closed Sun. & Mon.
Pendleton • Athena • Hermiston
Heppner • Ione • La Grande • Enterprise
Elgin • Baker City • Condon
2801 St. Anthony Way,
Pendleton, OR 97801
www.sahpendleton.org