Yesterday evening a little after 9pm Saturday night (19th) I heard a car alarm and thought nothing of it. I hear them all the time around here, and they usually shut off after a few seconds.

 

A little while later I heard it again, and it seemed louder and kept going for a while. It sounded like it was right outside, and there's no place anyone would park there. I got up to see, and I could see patrol car lights flashing on my blinds.

 

Across the street, and crossways in the traffic lane, a Toyota SUV sat with a flat driver's-side front tire and a mashed-in grille. There was a track up over the two-tier curb and through the snow on a fairly high shoulder, leading to a tree. It was pretty easy to deduce what had happened. The street is two lanes, one-way, posted 35mph, and traffic moves from left to right in the photo below.

 

 

 

The street was slick enough that it was treacherous to walk on. A little while earlier I had come home from the grocery in a mix of sleet and freezing drizzle at 20mph, and nobody passed me. Perhaps someone thought the TV ads were real, and owning a SUV exempted them from using common sense.

Forget the reason for the story, the photos are great!

Change the name of your street to "dead man curve"

yeah beautiful night shots. very inspiring rob.

 

Yikes! Sorry that happened. The snow/ice looks kind of pretty though.

Ft Wayne always seems to be in a sleet and ice belt. I used to drive between Dayton and Ft Wayne years ago and when I got above Celina (roughly) all rain seemed to instantly turn into black ice. Raining in Dayton, a skating rink in the Fort.

at first i though this thread was going to be about ft wayne getting infamous/beloved curves chain! :laugh:

 

I'd take that heavier SUV over the lightweight S10 pickup I used to drive.  Excellent gas mileage, terrible handling on snowy and icy roads because the vehicle was so lightweight.  Whenever it would get stuck after a heavy snow, My housemates and I would simply lift the truck up and carry it to the alley.

I drove a 1991 S-10 from 1991-2003. Four-cylinder, five-speed manual, 28/33mpg. I got past the slip-and-slide problem by simply putting eight cinderblocks in the bed, right up at the front, every winter. With that extra weight and a good set of tires I'd buzz right along when everyone else was sliding around and getting stuck. Of all the vehicles I've owned since 1957, I think it was the best.

Wow, I put 6 bags of concrete in the back...though I suppose there is only so much you can do in snowy weather.

Lake-effect snow is a whole order of magnitude worse than what we get around here. The only time I got stuck with the S-10 was on US 20 between Michigan City and South Bend, when there was virtually nothing else on the road. I buried that sucker good, and it took almost an hour to dig it out.

 

That was the same snowstorm that took out the catenary and shut down the South Shore for about two days. Michigan City was completely without power, and I found a motel where they gave me an extra blanket and loaned me a flashlight - and charged me full rate.

Tires, tires, tires. A good set of all-seasons will handle nasty snow with ease, let alone today's incredible snow tires. Though, if you don't have a limited-slip (aka Posi-traction) rear end, you're pretty much stuck.