THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, January 28, 1997 TAG: 9701280012
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A15 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: OPINION
SOURCE: George Hebert
LENGTH: 64 lines
We hereabouts have been hip-deep, recently, in advice about how to deal with sub-zero cold, ice and snow, owing to temperature plunges and threats of much worse. And we've been overhearing some of the warnings delivered in areas more frigidly plagued than ours.
Avoid ice-covered ponds, etc.; the stuff is thinner than it looks. Watch out for slick road surfaces; keep your feet off the brakes and gas while turning wheels in the direction of any skid; carry blankets, shovel and matches if you're traveling where snow might maroon you. Don't drive on snowy and icy roads if you can help it, anyhow. Wear layers of clothing to create insulation. Watch out for frostbite when the wind is hitting you with below-freezing air.
But curiously absent, or nearly so, are the instructions as to what to do about winter-time road spray.
For my money, this affliction is far more common, and aggravating-cum-perilous, than most of the hazards that get mentioned in the alarmist winter forecasts. People hole up to elude the worst cases of accumulating snow, glare ice and wind-propelled drifts. But that solution comes to mind - in the case of road spray - only after you discover yourself in harm's way.
I'm talking about what so often assaults drivers when recent snow or freezes have been tamed, at least superficially, by plowing or salt/sand applications or warming interludes. These are the times when almost everybody thinks they can get out on the roads in reasonable safety - and when they're all out there for sure.
But the reasonably careful motorist is in for a battle.
Not only may he or she find most of the other travelers passing at a nasty clip, but with each such passage a huge puff of icy spray or sandy spray or salty spray - or all three, and invariably a dirty mess - envelopes the slower vehicle.
The latter's windshield becomes an opaque wall for dangerous moments on end. Even the most furious lashing of wipers seems to take forever to make a hole to see through.
The usual villains of this scenario are the same hot-shots who can't stand to have anyone in front of them under normal sunny conditions. But the most infuriating offenders are the big rigs. These trucking behemoths literally blot out the scene on all sides when they charge by with their huge comets'-tail of road gook.
Both species of spray-generators act as if they are the only ones on the highway, or that passing another vehicle - burying it in a giant cloud of slurry - is a just a routine necessity in their manic progress.
What defense do the victims have? Very little. Speeding up themselves, to play the game by not allowing others to pass, is an idiot solution. Frequent use of the windshield-washing lever helps some, but not much on really bad spray-days, though the technique is a minimum must.
On one recent winter trip, we were into our third gallon of washer fluid by the time we got home. In fact the most deeply imprinted scenes from our venture were the pyramids - or prominent shelves-ful - of plastic bottles containing the blue fluid, thrust out into prominent display by service station after service station.
But as to recommendations for really effective countermeasures, the weather-warners give us a large silence. I think I know why, too.
Nobody knows of any. MEMO: Mr. Hebert, a former editor, lives in Norfolk.