By Jim Hunt for the News and Journal
One thing to be certain, if you live in the Northeast, you are going to be driving on some snowy
roads. I recently had a business meeting in Annapolis, Maryland and I was a little worried about
the weather before we left. My business partner was driving and after a few snow flurries, the
sun came out and we had a very pleasant drive through the mountains and arrived in Annapolis
in time for our meeting. When we parked in a parking garage close to the Maryland Capitol
building, we left our coats in the car and enjoyed the mild temperatures as we walked to the
offices of the Maryland Municipal League. We were planning to drive to Harrisburg,
Pennsylvania the next day, so we checked into our hotel and had a nice dinner with some
friends.
After watching the University of Michigan defeat the University of Washington in my hotel
room, I fell asleep and set my alarm for 7:00AM. About 5:00AM, I woke up to a weather alert
on my watch and was surprised to find that they had issued a winter storm advisory starting in
a couple of hours. I texted my traveling partner to see if he might want to leave earlier and try
and beat the storm. Unfortunately, he had turned off his notifications, so he did not see my text
until around 7:30. He agreed that we should leave as soon as possible, so we rushed around
and left the hotel around 8:15. We called our colleague in Harrisburg and informed them that
we were going to cancel our meeting and head straight home. He was fine canceling the
meeting and agreed that it was prudent to try and avoid the bad weather.
As we headed out on Interstate 70, the snow started falling and it was beginning to cover the
roadway. The further we traveled, the worse it got, and we were growing increasingly
concerned. We passed a wreck where a car had run off the road and there were police and
rescue squads working on getting the person out of the badly damaged car. Before we could
even comment on the wreck, a white pickup truck spun out in the eastbound lanes, and we
realized that this was not going to be an easy trip home. We moved along pretty well until the
elevation changed and we were going up a gradual grade, where dozens of tractor trailers were
struggling to gain traction, and several had jackknifed or ran off the road. We weaved in
between the stalled trucks and slowed down to a snail’s pace. We noticed a plume of heavy
black smoke ahead and it seemed that a truck’s engine had caught fire due to spinning their
wheels, trying to climb the mountain.
What normally takes about four and a half hours was quickly turning into a seven-hour
marathon. We saw several other wrecks along the way and as we drove down Route 50, into
Clarksburg, I was never so happy to see our little town. Winter driving is hazardous on the best
days of winter and with ice and snow covering the ground, it proved especially treacherous.
It had probably been over fifteen years since I had experienced conditions like this, and I am not
looking forward to doing it again. I have a renewed respect for the truck drivers and other vehicles that must be on the roads in such conditions and would encourage others to stay off
the roads, if at all possible, in winter conditions. Be safe!