With winter coming in, there are steps and procedures for how student drivers can prevent snow from becoming too big to handle.
School Resource Officer Brad Criswell said the biggest problem at the beginning of winter is people drive like it’s sunny outside.
“First round of ice or snow, people just driving too fast,” he said. “Driving in the wintertime is not the same as driving in August where conditions are perfect.”
Criswell said to plan ahead of traveling during winter time.
“Make sure to take extra time to slow down, you need to take extra time in winter, warm up and de-ice the car,” he said. “Make sure you have enough time to warm up and defrost your windshield, give yourself 20 minutes in the condition, not rushing things, give time to stop appropriately.”
Criswell said you have to be prepared for the unexpected.
“Make sure your cell phone is charged up, in case you go into a ditch,” he said.
Recent student driver Brayden Plourde has not yet experienced driving in the wintertime.
“I got my driver’s license early in September,” Plourde said. “I have never really driven in snow or ice or anything of that sort.”
While he doesn’t have experience driving in the snow yet, he does have advice from his parents.
“My parents have told me that there are some types of ice that you’re driving, and you don’t think it’s ice and then you’re sliding” Plourde said.
He has also seen his mother’s driving skills too that have made him aware of how to drive in the snow.
“My mother is really careful,” he said. “She’s super aware of all around the surroundings. She’s paying attention.”
If new drivers are gonna be in the snow, they have to be aware of the weather conditions, Plourde said.
“You do have to drive differently for different types of weather,” he said. “Like slushy, snowy, you’ve got to be slow and aware of your surroundings.”
Tom Scallon, assistant principal, said there are different types of accidents in the parking lot during the winter, although most of them are just fender benders.
Scallon said student drivers need to slow down, and they shouldn’t try to fit into a spot that could be small for the size of the vehicle.
“A light dusting of snow and it covers all the lines, every year, and it’s younger drivers…they try to put their car into a spot that they think it will fit and it doesn’t,” he said.
What happens next, according to Scallon, is that they end up door dinging the other person’s vehicle.
“If you can’t see the lines, then don’t try to squeeze in,” he said. “Just go further down the lot and live with it.”
