This is not an isolated incident up here. My old partner used to live outside of town and drive in every morning, and he would count up to seven cars in the center divider on snowy days. For some reason, people think that buying a sports utility vehicle with four wheel drive, traction control, anti-lock brakes, snow tires, etc. makes them immune to the laws of physics. Anti-lock breaks don't do any good when your traveling sideways.

While I've had a few accidents in the rain back in california, I've always been cautious with snow. My first snow trip involved a road trip from LA to Boulder in February. Finding chains in LA was a challenge, putting the chains on in the middle of a blizzard was another. After suffering through a seven hour delay and forty mile detour due to the main freeway being closed by an avalanche, you'd think I'd be pretty anxious to get on with the trip, but instead, there I was, over in the slow lane doing 35 mph with my chains going thwap-thwap-thwap.

I'm better in snow now (and can put chains on better too), but I keep the experiments confined to my driveway where I don't have to deal with other cars and am only going to run into a two foot snow drift. On the road I keep it safe and slow. People that don't, often find themselves at odds with reality, and reality always wins.