Wow. Video of Portland icy road/fender benders
 

https://www.king5.com/sharedcontent/V...4054&catId=231

This is amazing. You've heard roads "like a skating rink". This is it. Talk about helpless.

I think the 2nd vehicle sliding down the hill is a Prius.

Wow! that first car in the vid seems to have a death wish.

They gave it gas a couple of times. I wouldn't even be out in that weather.

Holy smokes! I can't say I've been in road conditions like that, ever. I'm sure insurance companies had a headache after that day.

Pinball...even with sound effects!

The king5.com thing seems to be broken now. It's also at: https://www.break.com/index/icy_roads_in_portland.html

I think the person in the SUV panicked. Sort of: "well the brake pedal doesn't seem to do anything... let's try this other pedal and see what happens"

I have to wonder if ABS is the culprit here. I have read that in really slippery conditions, it takes much longer to stop a car with ABS.

Notice how the 3rd car that was facing straight down the hill accelerated much faster than the Prius (?) that was going down the hill sideways? I'd assume that both drivers were standing on the brake pedal...

He's a pinball wizard! WOW! I mean, just WOW! I'm surprised there wasn't someone in a big 4x4 truck trying to rip through there and get smashed. Scary stuff. I guess that is the trade-off between over salting like here in MN and not salting at all?

What I REALLY wonder is, with all those people standing around, why they didn't try to stop people from turning down the street after the first car or 2... :confused:

I have driven in conditions like this and it is really scary.

I had a 74 Mercury Capri, I came down a very slight hill in Provo, Utah and it was exactly like this video. It is generally a mixture of snow, followed by a very light rain. It is slippery as all get out.

I put the car in low, to come down the hill and the auto tranny was enough drag to cause the tires to slip and from their I was only along for the ride. My wife and I spun around about 4 times, and we were only going maybe 10-15 mph. We finally slid against a curb until we stopped, without hitting anyone or anything. However, the guy behind me was having similar issues and I just managed to get the car to back up enough to get out of his way, before he stopped. I think their were about 6-7 additional vehicles which came down the hill and had the same issues.

The Police showed up and the officer ended up finally driving over the curb and into someones front yard, to get stopped.

It was so slippery that if you tried to walk on the street or sidewalk, you'd just keep falling down. I finally crawled off the sidewalk and into the snow in someones front yard, before I could stand up.

On the ABS, from my experience, all it really does is to largely go into it's pulsation mode, when one wheel starts to lock up. The problem it has is that it then goes pulsation crazy and you can't control what's going on with the wheel's, at all. All of my experiences with ABS have led me to feel far safer without it and if I ever figure out a way to disable it without creating an undue hazard to my car and passengers, I will. It is a very highly over rated capability, which effectively is largely imposed on people because of Big Brother, far more so than because it's a safety asset.

My biggest fault with ABS is the myth that is perpetuated by people that you can stop quicker. Pure baloney. The only thing ABS might do is in very specific circumstances, keep someone from totally locking up the wheels and losing control, in exchange for possibly having some directional control but not being able to stop the car in as short a distance.

I suspect that some of the people who got into trouble in the video were driving 4 wheel drive SUV's and so they presumed they had greater control than the conditions allowed and once they crested the hill, they were toast, as a consequence.

Not fun, in any case.:rolleyes: