How to Drive Safely on Icy Roads: Skid Pan Tips (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: Skidding, sliding and crashing off the road driving in wintry conditions can be dangerous. So how can you drive safely when the roads are icy. This is a skid pan. It replicates driving in icy conditions and I think we're going to take this little beauty for a bit of a spin.

[00:00:22] Speaker 2: We're at Thruxton circuit today on the skid pan. It's a highly polished slippery surface where we can have a car and practice skidding and sliding to turn you into a better driver. I'm a little bit apprehensive. I've been involved in a car that spun out of control in the past. What's going to be involved today? It will slip and slide, go out of control and we're going to see how the car reacts, how you react and what we can do to prevent being in a skid in the first place.

[00:00:45] Speaker 1: When the temperatures drop what do we need to look out for when we head out onto the roads?

[00:00:49] Speaker 2: We should de-ice the car properly. Make sure your screen wash is topped up. Make sure your tyres are in good condition and at the right pressure. Somebody will come out to their car and they'll scrape all the ice off the windscreen but they don't necessarily think about the road surface. It may have been perfectly okay yesterday when the temperature was warmer but today could there be ice? If the Met Office have issued a severe weather warning, the police have said not to drive, question yourself. Is your journey really necessary? Should you go out at all?

[00:01:15] Speaker 1: I'm a little bit apprehensive, got to be honest. Hopefully this will give me the skills and the confidence to move it so I can reach pedals.

[00:01:26] Speaker 2: This is all the slippery surface. Yeah. It's not quite as slippery as ice, to be fair. We've turned off the electronic stability program so the car will not help you when it starts to spin.

[00:01:39] Speaker 1: Let's give this a go, shall we?

[00:01:44] Speaker 2: That's it, we can build the speed up as we go through the slalom. I'm still feeling control at the moment. Just keep accelerating, keep accelerating and then turn.

[00:02:09] Speaker 1: That was alright and then all of a sudden there's that feeling of no control whatsoever. It's quite, how quickly it just, yeah, goes.

[00:02:17] Speaker 2: Let's just go round the roundabout, building up a little bit of speed. Okay, here we go.

[00:02:26] Speaker 1: We were still doing only around 20-25 miles an hour then.

[00:02:30] Speaker 2: We're not doing much speed at all and the car just immediately went out of control. And you can imagine, I suppose, if you were doing double that, it could be catastrophic on the public road, yes.

[00:02:46] Speaker 1: That was fun. It's funny, isn't it? That was fun. I say fun, that was quite scary though if that happened on a real road.

[00:02:53] Speaker 2: Whilst it's great fun to do this, it's even better not to be in a skid in the first place. So when the roads are icy and difficult, actually the biggest thing is reduce the speed and just be really smooth with the controls. Steering, braking, accelerating, smoothly. Should you get into a skid, what do you do? So you would ease the accelerator and steer into the direction of the skid. If the rear of the car moves right, we steer to the right. But you must be smooth in your inputs. We don't want lots of rapid steering inputs because it could make the situation worse. Keep the wheels pointing where you want to go, that's the crucial thing. But ultimately, if you're going too quickly, we just can't overcome the laws of physics. And not hitting the brake. Stay off the brake. Many people make the mistake of hitting the brakes hard and then the car could just go out of control and keep sliding. As the speed comes up, remember to ease and steer. Steer. See, caught it nicely. Oh. Caught it.

[00:03:50] Speaker 1: I did it.

[00:03:52] Speaker 2: And remember, ease the steer as soon as it goes. Oh, I can feel it starting to go there. Steer, steer, steer. Yeah, caught it. Oh, I caught it. Success. Here we go. People have problems when they drive too fast for the circumstances that they are in. So we really have to get that speed down in the icy conditions.

[00:04:17] Speaker 1: It was quite unnerving to begin with, that feeling of lack of control, but actually those little basic tips makes a huge difference. I felt back in control again and would have a bit more confidence. In fact, I'd have a lot more confidence should I ever be faced in one of those situations.

[00:04:32] Speaker 2: Always best not to get into a skid in the first place.