Auto-Igloos
First time I've ever heard of them, those mobile igloos, though I've seen them often enough. You know what it's like; driving along a winter roadway when suddenly a hard snow pancake hits your windshield and glances off. You look around and notice that there's a vehicle in front of you utterly snow-covered, only a portion of its windshield scraped clean of snow. And you wonder about people. It's not just personal vehicles, but trucks as well.
If it isn't downright illegal, it's utterly stupid. That anyone would be so careless as to embark on a trip without taking steps to ensure that the vehicle he's about to drive has been cleared of snow; all the windows, the roof of the vehicle, the trunk and the hood. When there's a layer of ice, covered with snow, or vice-versa, it's even worse. Wind and motion will inevitably dislodge those layers and send them flying.
Oddly enough, when it comes to this kind of neglect of road responsibility, it seems that men are the major culprits, not women. What that tells us isn't clear, but what is abundantly clear is that people are a) in too much of a hurry, b) too damn lazy. The impact of a flying snow-and-ice pancake can be considerable, depending on the size of the combination. The deleterious effect of such a flying object hitting a windshield can cause, at the very least, a brief interruption in driver attention.
In the worse-case scenario, and it's been adequately documented, such a flying object can be lethal, smashing through a car windshield, causing accidents. A quoted example was that of an Illinois man who required reconstructive surgery to his face as a result of one flying snow projectile smashing through his windshield. The Canadian Automobile Association, co-operating with Transport Canada, pinpoints a lack of attention clearing snow and ice off cars before embarking on a trip as one of winter driving's most pervasive problems.
"Men appear to be worse offenders than women, and are a staggering 129% more likely ... to have had a near-miss on the roads in the winter because they set off before clearing their windscreen properly", according to Tim Bailey, head of safety at Continental Tires. And one unfortunate individual who had the misfortune of having his windshield struck by a "flying crust of crusty snow" is enraged by that kind of negligence.
"They're lazy morons who need to be fined - heavily." Right on.
If it isn't downright illegal, it's utterly stupid. That anyone would be so careless as to embark on a trip without taking steps to ensure that the vehicle he's about to drive has been cleared of snow; all the windows, the roof of the vehicle, the trunk and the hood. When there's a layer of ice, covered with snow, or vice-versa, it's even worse. Wind and motion will inevitably dislodge those layers and send them flying.
Oddly enough, when it comes to this kind of neglect of road responsibility, it seems that men are the major culprits, not women. What that tells us isn't clear, but what is abundantly clear is that people are a) in too much of a hurry, b) too damn lazy. The impact of a flying snow-and-ice pancake can be considerable, depending on the size of the combination. The deleterious effect of such a flying object hitting a windshield can cause, at the very least, a brief interruption in driver attention.
In the worse-case scenario, and it's been adequately documented, such a flying object can be lethal, smashing through a car windshield, causing accidents. A quoted example was that of an Illinois man who required reconstructive surgery to his face as a result of one flying snow projectile smashing through his windshield. The Canadian Automobile Association, co-operating with Transport Canada, pinpoints a lack of attention clearing snow and ice off cars before embarking on a trip as one of winter driving's most pervasive problems.
"Men appear to be worse offenders than women, and are a staggering 129% more likely ... to have had a near-miss on the roads in the winter because they set off before clearing their windscreen properly", according to Tim Bailey, head of safety at Continental Tires. And one unfortunate individual who had the misfortune of having his windshield struck by a "flying crust of crusty snow" is enraged by that kind of negligence.
"They're lazy morons who need to be fined - heavily." Right on.
Labels: Canada, Social-Cultural Deviations
posted by Pieface @ 6:04 PM
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