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The road ice hazard defined: what it is, and isn't
The road ice hazard is defined by the conditions and situations where icing causes the highest impacts to life and property. These factors are as follows:
- High-speed travel (above 45mph, interstates, rural 2-lanes)
- Element of suprise (including bridges)
- Subtle and intermittent icing (not visibly prominent)
- Light winter precipitation (including snow and freezing rain)
- Freezing rain/drizzle/fog (invisible ice)
In essence, the road ice hazard is primarily highway-speed travel during light winter precipitation events, when driver awareness is low and visual indicators are few. The majority of deaths and serious injuries occur during these conditions. To narrow the definition of the hazard even further, we can cite the phenomenon of high-speed oversteer. Oversteer is the primary cause of loss of vehicle control at high speeds, and most fatal accidents begin with one or more vehicles entering an oversteer condition. Oversteer at highway speeds is nearly impossible to correct and leads to a vehicle spinning out, leaving the roadway, rolling over and/or impacting oncoming traffic.
It might be helpful to list what the road ice hazard is not:
To sum it up, the road ice hazard isn't the minor fender-benders or slide-offs common during snowstorms. The hazard is primarily the serious, highway-speed crashes during light icing events that take drivers by surprise.
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