Driving on ice, “it’s a terrible trap”: advice from a specialist

Pay attention to shaded areas and slopes in particular. To avoid disaster, “you have to be very vigilant, slow down, not overestimate yourself and keep a safe distance,” recommends Yves Carra, spokesperson for Mobilité Club France.

31 departments in the north of France are on orange snow and ice alert. The situation, although announced by Météo France, risks surprising and trapping many motorists on Wednesday January 17, particularly due to the risk of freezing rain during the day. Faced with these situations, “you have to be very vigilant, slow down, not overestimate yourself and keep a safe distance”advises Yves Carra, spokesperson for Mobilité Club France.

franceinfo: What to do when you have to take the road with such a risk of ice?

Yves Carra: When you’re in your car with freezing rain, frankly, there’s not much you can do because ice is a terrible trap. You can have a road that is completely clear and then you arrive in undergrowth or on a bridge, it can be very dangerous: controls, zero, and you slide. So you have to be very vigilant, slow down, don’t overestimate yourself and keep a safe distance, it’s common sense. But we don’t always apply it. It’s really when you arrive in shady areas, in shady undergrowth or in particularly cold areas that you need to be vigilant. It’s a total trap and often there’s no warning. The advice to also give is to avoid big changes in altitude, big descents, big climbs. You know, it’s the shortest way from your home to your job.

“Don’t hesitate to take a detour to stay as flat as possible.”

Yves Carra, spokesperson for Mobilité Club France

at franceinfo

Because it is in these slopes that the problems arise. When your car is sliding, there’s not much you can do when it’s going downhill, and when it’s going uphill, you’re stuck.

The key word is to anticipate, be careful, perhaps drive a little slower?

Yes, completely.

“I always recommend having in your car, to get out of a bad situation, whether it’s freezing rain or snow, what we call tire socks.”

It costs 40-50 euros. You put them in the trunk in winter, it doesn’t bother you at all and it gets you out of a bad situation. It takes a few minutes to put them on and at least you can return to the main roads, which are generally salty. This is the minimum equipment to have in your car in certain regions which are affected by the mountain law. So it’s useful all the time, it’s good and it doesn’t take up space.

If the car starts to slide, what are the right reflexes?

It’s too late ! When she slips a lot, it’s moving forward. This is called understeer. You must do nothing, do not brake, do not accelerate. You have to regain grip with the steering wheel, feeling that the front wheels have regained grip to be able to regain traction, at least the steering. But there, really, when we slipped, it was because we were a little too fast. You just have to hope that there is no one in front because there is not much to do.