My friends say to me that I must love the snow because it causes so many accidents. Putting aside the idea that the whole concept of loving accidents is reprehensible, I advise them that it is the summer that is the busy season, because there are simply more cars on the road and people are driving faster. Snow usually reduces the number of clients coming in, because it reduces the number of people on the road; it causes people to drive slower, so that even if there is an accident, it is less likely to cause an injury, and to the extent that there are accidents, many of them are one car accidents for which it is not possible to bring a claim. This winter, however, has caused a huge spike up in the number of clients coming into the office with accident claims. However, these accidents are not “caused” by the snow, but instead by people’s frustration with the snow. There has been so much snow this winter that people are driving the way they normally drive, even though they should not be. In other words, when there is an occasional snow storm here and an occasional snow storm there, people change their driving patterns to accommodate the weather. When the roads are bad for an entire month, people just live their lives as they normally would.
Many of the accidents that I have been seeing follow the traditional pattern of winter accidents. By that I mean, they involve a vehicle skidding or losing control on an icy road and either hitting another vehicle, or hitting some object such as a guard rail and causing injury to the passengers who can bring claims. More often than not, the at fault vehicle is a truck, SUV, or other vehicle with four wheel drive or all wheel drive. I do not mean to disparage the drivers of such vehicles. I drive an SUV, and so does my wife. I do not understand why more people in New England do not drive four wheel drive vehicles, as four wheel drive is extremely helpful in helping a car or a truck to gain traction and go in the snow. However, four wheel drive is of no value when it comes time to stop. A four wheel drive vehicle is every bit as likely to skid and is every bit, if not more, likely to lose control when it swerves than a regular automobile. In short, four wheel drive helps you to go, but it does not help you to stop. Additionally, because of the distribution of weight in SUVs, swerving is actually more of a problem for an SUV with four wheel drive than it is for a passenger car with two wheel drive. Unfortunately, too many drivers of four wheel drive vehicles seem to feel that they are immune to winter’s effects. As such, they are driving more or less the way they normally would, even though the road is icy.
The other accidents we are seeing are unique to this winter and are the result of the quantity of snow that has piled up alongside the roads. When people on side streets stop before entering an intersection, they can no longer see the traffic on the main road because of the huge snow banks. What people are supposed to do in that situation is stop at the stop line and slowly nudge out until they can see that it is safe for them to proceed. Although in the process of nudging out they are cutting off oncoming cars, hopefully by doing it slowly the oncoming traffic can see them and react appropriately. What seems to be happening, however, is people are stopping where they can see. As a result, they are cutting off oncoming traffic, and doing it quite abruptly. The result is that one of two things occurs. Either the oncoming car hits the car that pulled from the side street, or the car on the main road swerves to avoid the car coming from the side street. I myself have had to swerve to avoid several cars that did not stop where they were supposed to. Fortunately for me, I was able to maintain control of my vehicle, and there was no car coming at me in the opposite direction to hit me. I have had a number of cases this winter where the car that swerved lost control and/or simply got into a collision with the oncoming vehicle. I have also had a number of cases this winter where the car in the main road simply hit the car coming from the side street, either because there was simply no time to react, or the road was too slick to stop or there was no safe place to swerve to. People need to understand that where there is a snow bank on the corner, the point at which they can see is a point which has the entire front end of their car cutting off the main road. The drivers on the main road have the right of way, and the fact that there is a snow bank present does not change that fact. In fact, it creates a situation where the driver on the main road cannot see the car on the side street until the car on the side street has entered the intersection. That snow bank blocks vision in both directions. As a result, it is that much more important that the driver on the side street stop where it’s supposed to and then nudge forward. More to the point, these accidents that I am describing are not “caused” by the snow bank. They are caused by the negligent operation of the driver on the side street. As such, not only are you risking your life and the lives of others when you pull halfway into a lane of traffic before stopping, but you will be found at fault for the accident that you, and not the snow bank, caused.
I should perhaps apologize for the tone of this blog, as I do get irritated by people who try to blame everyone and everything for what they have done. Negligence is a failure to exercise reasonable care under the circumstances. As such, driving activities that are perfectly reasonable under good weather, may not be reasonable when there is snow on the ground. I urge all of my readers always to be careful when they are driving for their own safety and the safety of everyone around them. After such a long and frustrating winter, it is especially important to be mindful of what is and is not safe driving under the circumstances.