For millions of people in the United States, the holiday season hasn’t been particularly quiet this time of year. The weather has caused a lot of problems in many areas across the country and even Seattle is experiencing extremely low temperatures and freezing breezes. December 21 marked only the 11th time Seattle’s lows have dropped into the teens since 2000, according to multiple sources. This puts some drivers in very unexpected situations.
New snippet from Pacific Northwest Weather Watch on YouTube summarizes the negative experiences of many drivers from the last few days. The short video attached at the top of this page shows a parked Tesla Model S sliding across thick ice and crashing into a stalled Ford Explorer Interceptor. Seconds later, the electric sedan continued down the road and then crashed into a telephone pole. Luckily, all the action footage on the cameras was very low speed and it was very unlikely that anyone would get hurt.
From what we can see, we believe the Tesla’s parking brake is engaged as the rear wheels remain fully engaged throughout the entire video. We don’t think there’s much to be done in this situation to avoid hitting a car or other object, but one good rule of thumb is to turn the wheels toward the curb and try to slow down the vehicle.
Another video shows a very similar situation in a different area of Seattle. This one is even scarier actually – what looks like a Subaru that reportedly doesn’t have a driver inside hurtles down the road and crashes into several cars before continuing further down and finally coming to a stop in the middle of an intersection. Again, this happened at low speed and we can be sure that no one was hurt.
Is there a way to prevent accidents like that from happening? If you’re on the road there isn’t much you can do. The only really useful advice is – don’t drive, stay home.
