I had the pleasure to drive I-15 twice. One day after the storm hit and then a surprise storm when I was leaving Logan to come home.
The first storm ended up being a dud really. Provo didn't get more than an inch or two.
It was predicted that this storm was going to be really big with white-out conditions. Well for some reason the storm took one look at Provo, dumped all that it had north of us. Then moved over my lovely home. By the time it was able to make more snow it was well to the south of us and literally left us rather dry with a whole lot of cold.
Several days later it decided to snow on the day that I was coming home. I did not fret and knew that I would have to drive a little slower. I left the Logan around 3:30, and proceeded cautiously through Sardine Canyon. When i finally got on the interstate I figured there was not as much snow I can drive a little faster. Even though the speed limit was 75 mph I decided I better not push my luck and decided a nice speed of 60 mph would do just fine. Before I was two miles down I-15 I realized that I was still going to fast and needed to slow down a little more. I know you are asking how now how did he know that he was going to fast and what happened. I almost joined a statistic below. Nevertheless this is what happened:
(This silver Mitsubishi Outlander is an all-wheel drive vehicle)I am no stranger to driving in slippery conditions in a rear-wheel drive vehicle. Usually it was the Mercury Cougar, but now I drive the Ranger. It takes a little longer to get up to speed and it is a little taller.. okay a lot taller... off the ground. As I came up onto a bridge everything seemed to be fine. Unfortunately in the fast lane on the far end of the bridge there was a bump with ice that sent me fish-tailing down the interstate at 60 mph. I have to admit I panicked and it felt like my stomach wrapped itself around my spine twice. At slower speeds... I would give it a little more gas and hold the slide like I was drifting a million dollar super car. Then let go of the drift and regain control by releasing the accelerator and let the wheel catch on their own. However at 60 mph in a vehicle that has a rather high center of gravity I freaked and tapped the brakes once to slow the truck down. I went from a driver side slide... to a passenger side slide... and then back to a driver side slide before I was able to straighten out on the interstate. It ended up that I never left my lane during this terrifying slide. Afterwards I felt like I recieved a double dose of adrenaline.
After straightening out the next thought that went through my mind was, "I think I should slow down just a little more." I think I was driving 45 to 50 mph for the majority of the way home after that. A trip that should have taken 2 hours became 3 hours. It didn't mind, I was listening to Book Six of TWOT series, The Lord of Chaos.
I was lucky. Below are the reported stats from UHP and KSL News for just Sunday driving.
The weather created terrible driving conditions when the storm first hit Sunday. The Utah Highway Patrol reported more than 300 slide-offs and crashes in 11 counties across the state.
UHP Lt. John Mitchell said, "If people would just slow down, take their time, give themselves enough time to get where they need to go, we could avoid these types of accidents."
Accidents were reported Sunday on I-15 in Bountiful, I-215 in north Salt Lake, I-80 between 7200 West and 9900 West, and at 600 North and I-15 in Salt Lake. Also, a truck jackknifed at 4700 South on I-215.
A single mother of three was killed in a wreck on I-15 in Riverdale. (I passed this accident less than 30 minutes after it happened.)
UHP reported crash totals for this storm through 6 a.m. Monday for Salt Lake and Utah counties alone are:
* 41 injury accidents
* 251 property damage reports
* 50 slide-offs
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