With the winter season rapidly approaching, many high school students will take on the icy roads for the first time. Indiana’s required drivers education only skims the surface of how to handle such conditions, and most in-car driving lessons are done in fair road conditions as well. This leaves the inexperienced young drivers at a disadvantage when they do have to face unfavorable weather. One Adams senior claims that her experience with drivers ed, “Did not prepare me for snow,” while another says, ”It’s really terrifying to drive on icy roads especially because I can never tell where the ice is and my car always slides on the little hidden patches of ice making it really hard for me to drive in the winter.” Not only is this dangerous for those lacking knowledge and experience, but it also poses a threat to everyone else sharing the road with them. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recorded over 150,000 snow-related collisions in 2022, with around 500 fatalities and over 30,000 left injured. Clearly, not all of these were caused by first-time drivers, but being educated on how to properly operate a vehicle in winter conditions is vital in preventing these numbers from increasing. 

There are many obvious and well preached adaptations to be made in the winter, such as increasing following distance and keeping away from snow plows. Creating more space between vehicles, especially when it comes to snow plows and large trucks, can be helpful in preventing a collision on roads where braking time is increased. Being aware of your car’s individual acceleration and deceleration rates in icy conditions is also beneficial, because it reduces the possibility of lurching forward or hydroplaning. Proper tire tread additionally increases the stability of steering, and occasionally inspecting tire pressure helps to ensure that cars can function to the best of their ability. A memorable tip to help with winter driving is that slow and steady wins the race. It is better to be on the side of caution rather than to be in or cause an accident. 

Ensuring that your windshield wipers and light settings work correctly help with road visibility. This goes hand-in-hand with using a car’s defrosting system, something that is rarely taught until a scary experience on the roads. Each vehicle’s heating/cooling system is individual to the model, so operation instructions can be found in the vehicle driving manual, online, or even by playing with the buttons when safely parked. JD Power, a renowned automotive technology company, explains that the process of defrosting involves heating the windshield to prevent condensation on its outer side. This then ‘defrosts’ the window, taking it from its foggy, bleary state and turning it clear. It is also important to keep an ice-scraper and small shovel in the vehicle for the possible event that you may be snowed in. While these things may not seem important when leaving the house, they can become necessary at any given moment. 

There are many myths involving how to properly warm-up a car before leaving, but the American Automobile Association claims that slowly accelerating into a drive as you depart is actually more beneficial than idly letting the engine run. This is still a widely debated topic, so asking a parent or trusted mechanic, with specific experience with the vehicle, will most likely provide a beneficial answer. Discussing winter road conditions and vehicle maintenance with experienced drivers is a major step in avoiding dangerous situations. An embarrassing or repetitive conversation may yield tips that save a young teen driver’s life.