Iowa Drivers Face Slippery Road Conditions

New drivers and even people who have been driving for decades can make mistakes on slick and icy roads when winter weather strikes. All too often drivers do not slow down when conditions become hazardous and do not know how to handle a skid if they hit a patch of ice. When drivers do not adapt their driving to weather conditions, accidents can result and sometimes people can get hurt.

On dry pavement, drivers can often get away with accelerating quickly, slamming on their brakes and even making sharp turns, confident that the tires will grip the road. However, when winter storms start brewing, it is time to prepare for a slippery ride and driving has to slow down, become smoother, to avoid an accident.

Many liken it to walking on ice, where you take smaller, tiny steps to avoid a fall. It is much the same when operating a vehicle – every movement must be minimized and slowed to keep from colliding into traffic, hitting obstructions, or rolling into a ditch. All drivers have a duty of care to their passengers and other motorists to drive according to conditions – a failure to do so may result in a finding of negligence.

Every year, twenty percent of the roughly 6 million car crashes involve hazardous weather. Over 5,000 fatalities annually are due to weather related crashes and hundreds of thousands are injured. Slick surfaces can easily result in an accident especially when drivers do not take the necessary precautions so it is important to act responsibly on Iowa roads this winter season.

If you or a family member has been injured in an Iowa motor vehicle accident during slippery road conditions and from the negligence of another driver, contact the Des Moines personal injury law offices of John T. Hemminger for your free consultation and help at 515-283-2116.