Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-12-28
YEARS FIRST SNOW
SERVESAS WARNING
Skidding Preventives Found
Urgent by Many
Motorists.

The first light snow Of the year
brought home to hundreds Of Washing
ton motorists how unpleasant it may be
to be caught far from the nome garage
without skid chains or any way Of get
ting the family chariot home without
running the risk of limping home with a
smashed radiator or a couple of tenders
hanging after a skidding traff1c smash.
Washington is not particularly hilly
city like Pittsburgh or San Francisco,
but such snow as the recent one can
cause skids on q level surface If the
car operator Is not extremely careful
how he approaches stop" signs or
crossings. Many a fender was crushed
to shapeless mass and many q radiator
damaged as brakes locked in front Of a
stop sign or a car going in the opposite
direction and chainless wheels locked in
the snow, and the helpless operator
watched his skidding car crash into en-
other vehicle, powerless to do anything
to stop its mad career.
Chains Are Answer.
The only answer to such snowfalls,
coming with little warning and coming
fast, is a pair of skid chains, readily
accessible and quickly put on. In the
absence Of more effective measures, such
as sanding the pavement at important
crossings or a quick clearing Of the
snow, they are the most effective things
vct devised to help wet rubber to grip
ON slippery snow or ice.
The recent snowfall was not the Sleety
mixture which comes about twice every
Winter in Washington and leaves motor
cars almost helpless in the wake Of its
slippery vastness, but it was effective
enough to cause literally scores Of acct
dents and hundreds of near accidents
as cars skidded helpleSsly on the treach-
erous footing. Underneath the inch Of
snow that fell was thin covering Of
ice, and even though rubber tires bit
down through the packed snow, when
they encountered that ice they were as
helpless es babies. Brakes locked and
cars SEi6ded and tenders were crun-
pied, and that was all there was to It.
The only thing to be done, in the alb
sence OF skid chains, was TO proceed
cautiously, with the car well under con-
troll In case quick stop was necessary.
There are many bad spots in Wash
ington, even though the city has few
bad hills. All stop streets became bad
spots with the snowfall, for motor car
operators, facing the first snowfall of
the season, dashed up to the stop signs
at is miles an hour and more, slammed
the brakes on and skidded out into the
middle Of the arterial highway before
they could stop. There they were some
times met by car proceeding on the
highway, and the two met in helpless
collision. slipping pavementS such as
those on Twelfth and Thirteenth streets,
from F to E streets: Thirty-fourth street
in Georgetown and Fifteenth and Six
tenth streets between Florida avenue
and the top of the hill became almost
hopeless affairs for cars not equipped
with chains Indeed, for a time during
the rush hour last Wednesday Sixteenth
street between Florida avenue and Cres-
cent place was roped of and trafflc was
diverted to other less dangerous streets.
Fifteenth street between Florida avenue
and Euclid street became tangled mass
Of traffic, with many cars seeking to
make the grade and skidding down
against the curb.
Many Minor Collisions.
Stop signs scattered along Wisconsin
avenue became spots where many motor
lists were unable to stop and collided
with others proceeding along that ar
terial highway. Reservoir road at
Thirty-fifth street became glare of ice,
and there were many minor collisions
at that point as motorists coming along
the good stretch Of Reservoir road at
the speed limit tried to stop at the In
Q street, in Georgetown, a narrow
thoroughfare, where cars are parked on
both sides of the street at all hours of
the day, saw many accidents as big
buses crowded other cars onto the slip
perry side of the pavement. The inter-
section of Connecticut and Florida ave-
nues became a spot of tragedy to many
motorists who came down the hill to-
ward S street on Connecticut avenue
and found their brakes inadequate to
hold them at the traftic light at Florida
avenue. The whole thing was just
sample of how a light fall of snow,
complicated by freezing temperatures
which causes a thin coating Of ice on
the pavement, can throw the trafic Of
an entire city into confusion and some
times hopeless ENHANCEMENT.
The big snow Of l922--cause Of the
Knickerbocker disaster-threw the en-
tire city into chaos and caused COM
plete Encouragement Of the snow-clean-
ing facilities Of the District government
The big snow Of February, 1927, also
caused Encouragement Of the snow
cleaning facilities, but nowadays the
local facilities for cleaning snow are
adequate to meet any big fall Of snow,
which Washington has only once every
| few years. Sleetstorns cause more dis
turbance to trafflc In Washington than
| big SHOWS. So do the light snowfalls,
such as we had last week, where the