These Are Your Worst Winter Driving Experiences

Driving through nasty winter weather requires a certain amount of skill and concentration you don't really need driving day to day. The smallest slip up or lapse in judgment can end with pretty disastrous results. Pretty much everyone has a nightmare winter driving experience, but some stick out above the rest. Some are just the worst of the worst. That led me to the question I asked you all last week.

I wanted to know what your worst winter driving experience of all time was, and you all delivered. We've got everything: from ski trips gone awry to freak car crashes because God decided it was your time. They say misery loves company, so if you've got your own driving hell story, you're going to be able to commiserate with your fellow poor schmucks who were just as unlucky as you.

Anyway, that's enough of me yapping. Scroll on down below and check out some of your fellow Jalops' worst winter driving experiences.

Driving back from LA to SLC a couple years ago. We had planned to stop in Vegas for the night, but a storm was forecast to roll in the next day and I did not want to drive 6 hours during it, so I pressed on. Made it to central UT and the storm had arrived early! YAY! Driving on I-15 with 50 foot visibility, and countless truck boys flying past me only to realize I was going slow for a fucking good reason. I'm glad they did, luckily none of them found out after fucking around, but I was able to follow their tire marks in the snow because I could barely see them. Had no idea how much I'd been white knuckling it until we finally got out of the storm, 2 hours later, after driving only 40 miles. GF and kids got out of the car and they all threw up because they were so tense, and I had to walk around a gas station a few times chain smoking to calm down. It was the most intense drive I've ever made in winter, and I've never altered plans to try to beat a storm again.

Submitted by: Artificial Stupidity

We had a nice day of skiing, where it was one of those warmish days interrupted by a squall that dumped big huge flakes. We left when the wind picked up to uncomfortable levels. The roads were clear because it was sunny and above freezing, but by now the wind was really howling. Every now and again we'd hit an area where the wind was channeled into a narrow area, like through a low point/gulley. What would happen is we'd be cruising along at speed limit (or so) when we'd crest a rise and see snow blowing across the road. The cars ahead would compact it into ice, and the snow still blowing across left a nice sheen of water on top of the ice. The first freakout was the flashing lights ahead. We slowed to about 30 and the cop was signaling to slow down. And then we get it...the crown of the road was enough to get our Subaru into a lateral slide. By the end of the day we'd seen two cars on their roofs and the wreckage from a head-on collision, plus a smattering of cars upright but in the ditch.

Submitted by: dug deep

Those readers who are from – or have driven through – Alberta will know what a shit show the QE2 highway is between Calgary and Edmonton in the winter. You've got a high-percentage of lifted pickups coupled with bros amped up on Redbull and who knows what else doing 30 over the limit coming down from or heading up to Fort MacMurray with no regard for the conditions or anyone else on the road. Accidents are common, and they're usually big.

I was on this road, in the evening, in my decidedly smaller Mazda 3 driving south from Edmonton to Red Deer with a lot of snow coming down when – naturally – I had a flat. So, there I am, -20 C out, snow, a narrow shoulder and hyper-aggressive bro-dozers flying by me at 130 kph changing a flat. I was pretty sure I was going to die. But, I made it. Frozen fingers. Covered in snowy grime. Pulsing with adrenaline. And after all that I got to enjoy the experience of driving in those conditions with a donut.

Submitted by: TheWalrus

Chicago winters did a number on me when I was in college.

My car at the time was an 89 Fox body. The door's lock on the driver side would freeze often, and I'd have to get in on the passenger side. Carrying a small bottle of lock de-icer and a lighter became normal to thaw out the lock.

Other times, the door itself would freeze, with a final insult being that the cheap door handle on the passenger side snapped off in my hand one time (I had to crawl in through the hatchback).

Anyone that's lived in Chicago knows about the parking version of musical chairs as you bounce around between specific sides of the street to avoid being towed when they do the street cleaning. Well, they also have a thing that if it snows a certain amount, you have to move your car off the street so the plows can get through.

One night a bad snow storm comes through, and I get dressed in the middle of the night to get my car moved before the cutoff. I find my Mustang buried under several inches of snow...a Fox-body shaped drift of snow, basically.

I put my key in the lock...won't budge. Repeated applications of de-icer followed by using a warmed-up key fail to make any headway. Don't try the passenger side because there isn't a door handle...back to the hatch we go.

Lock is frozen back there, too. Key won't move at all. De-icer, hot key...nothing. At this point I start beating on the back of the hatch, causing snow to fly everywhere as I try to get the seal to break. Then I notice that the lip of the hatch is all rusted...when did that happen?

My hatch doesn't have rust like that. Hmm. I start clearing off the car and hold up the lighter. This isn't my car. This is a dark blue Fox body. Mine is dark red.

Quickly look around to see if anyone has been watching me go all "This is what happens when you meet a stranger in the Alps" on this car. Spot another Fox-body shaped drift 3 cars down which is actually my car. Quickly trot over there, give the lock a shot of de-icer, and I'm able to get in and drive off in a fish-tailing spray of snow to hide my shame.

Submitted by: Matt

Snowpocalypse 2014 in Atlanta. The name is not really applicable because it was more ice than anything. I worked in Sandy Springs and lived on the SW side of Atlanta. Things got bad quick and I kept hearing about all the traffic and crashes and most of my co-workers dashed for the exit. Me knowing Atlanta traffic I kept working and left around 6pm. My thought was I'll let things sort themselves out and not get stuck or rear ended by someone trying to drive with bald tires. It took me almost 3 hours to get home and I drove down 400 just looking at all the cars on the side of the road. Coming into the city there were tractor trailers pointing in the wrong direction and I remember weaving through cars that just stopped in the middle of the highway. My trusty Volvo V70 with some cheap all seasons made it home that night and my wife couldn't believe it. I still remember a few people cheering me on as I navigated through cars all over the highway.

Submitted by: Caj

New Year's Eve 2024, at 9pm on my way home to celebrate the New Year. My truck decided it's the perfect time to throw transmission into a shitshow, throw the truck into 3rd and stop shifting. Throw every imaginable light on the dash and disable the reverse camera. I stop, shut the car off and give it a few minutes. Start again, shift into gear and the truck doesn't know what gear it's in (I think still 3rd). Slam the throttle and it barely moves.

The bad news I was 6 miles from my house. The good news I was a block away from my mechanic. Ended up leaving the truck at my mechanic (closed), good thing I'm on good terms and can leave my truck at the front. Called an uber, paid the surge pricing. Truck had to eventually be towed to a transmission place and stayed there for 2 weeks so they figure out wtf is wrong.

Fucking Chevy, man.

Submitted by: willzyx

Back when i was a college freshman, heading back to college after a weekend helping out on the family farm. It was a 3.5-hour drive under the best conditions, but hit a snowstorm in the north-central South Dakota plains. A white-knuckle drive at 15-25mph for the next 30 miles, where you could not see the road, but could barely make out fence posts on either side, and just stay centered between the rows of fence posts.

Was very happy to finally roll into a town (pop. 500) and see civilization again. Car was a '76 Charger SE with 400ci engine and studded tires on the rear.

Submitted by: Grasscatcher2

1996 was the coldest winter Iowa had in 95 years. I had recently moved there, and my previous winter/snow/ice driving experience was almost zero. I grew up in west Texas, where those signs that read "Caution! Bridges Ice Before Roadway" don't really mean anything.

I learned that they DO mean it in Iowa.

I was driving between Cedar Falls and Cedar Rapids in a Ford E350 extended van pulling a 15' enclosed tandem axel trailer. It was cold and windy, there was snow on the ground, but the roads appeared clear and dry.

I was approaching an overpass and noticed that every other car took the exit. I thought that was odd because that exit was just for some country road. Nothing really there.

When I got up on the overpass, my rig almost immediately started to skid to the left. I steered into the skid, only for it to start to skid to the right. I gathered it back up just in time for me to hit the end of the black ice.

I was still steering to recover from the skids, so my wheels weren't pointed straight. I hit dry pavement at probably 50mph with the steering wheel turned probably 30-45 degrees. The van and trailer IMMEDIATELY jacknifed and shot off the road. Since I was still on the overpass, that meant the van and trailer snowplowed down the overpass hill.

To this day, I am convinced the suction generated by my sphincter tightening up kept me shiny side up. The van was well and truly stuck, but thankfully, pretty much every driver that had wisely taken the exit to avoid the overpass had seen what I did. All those good midwesterners pulled over, probably to watch the potential carnage and offer aid the me, should I survive.

I caught a ride back to Cedar Rapids with a deputy sheriff coming back from a prisoner transport. He didn't make me ride in the back, which was nice.

The next day, a tow truck recovered my van and trailer, and the only damage was a small dent on the trailer. Not even sure how that happened.

 Submitted by: Anthony Thornton

Another one was 20 years ago, driving from SLC to Denver on I-80. Couldn't understand why there were so many fireworks going off on the side of the freeway in October. Eventually saw flashing red and blue behind me, but that didn't make sense because I was going the speed limit. Pulled over, cop pulled up next to me, rolled down his passenger window and yelled at me, "HURRY THE FUCK UP, THERE'S A HUGE STORM COMING IN BEHIND US!" Then he sped off and I followed him, ended up going over 100mph all the way until Cheyenne. Turned south onto I-25, and saw the storm envelop the city until it faded from view.

Submitted by: Artificial Stupidity

Decades ago, I was driving down I-75 in Detroit. It was snowing and icy and I was about 10 below the limit. Somebody came up fast behind me and over corrected. He proceeded to spin his car multiple times, and it went all the way around my car and he ended up facing the wrong way against the pile of snow at the median. 2 minutes later, he is barrelling by me again.

Submitted by: canucksalaryman-hates-kinja

Plenty of that after 20 Minnesota winters, but the ones that stand out were the Christmas-break drives back to Upstate NY. This would be mid-late-December, I-90 east of Chicago through the heart of the lake-effect snow belt. In a friend's early 70s full-sized Chrysler (Newport, I think?) with college-student-budget tires. Think Buffalo-level snowfall. Never went off the road, though...

Submitted by: stevegravelle

Driving through Virginia in December in my RWD BMW 330i with staggered summer tires. An unexpected snow storm popped up and started dumping snow. I was driving 15-20mph in top gear and following the tracks of the big rig in front of me. Even with that, DSC could barely keep the car straight! It was truly white-knuckle stuff. From then on I religiously changed to my narrower all season set every November.

Submitted by: Stephen

I wrecked my SRT-4 hitting a guardrail on an icy bridge several years ago. (I resurrected it; still driving it.) But that wasn't my worst experience. The worst was due to the mental effects of that wreck, which has caused a kind of PTSD for me with winter driving. :( Last winter for the first time I experienced a panic attack while driving home from work in a near-blizzard. I had never had a panic attack, but clearly that's what it was. I thought I was going to pass out at one point, and when I finally made it home I just burst into tears walking into the house. I have new sympathy for anyone who regularly has to deal with that kind of anxiety.

Submitted by: CSX321