WINDSOR TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) — Every winter, Michigan drivers face wet, snowy and icy roads. Michigan State Police troopers train to drive those roads as safely as possible.
Storm Team 8 meteorologist Matt Kirkwood buckled up with Trooper Ryan Davis at the MSP training facility near Lansing to learn how to keep the car on the road in adverse conditions. The trick: Drive out of a spin-out.
“When we teach how to drive out of it, we’re steering away from it and we’re looking in the direction we want to go instead of the direction that we’re going,” Davis said. “Just nice, smooth steering inputs.”
“This can be used for a lot of different practicalities: ice, snow, hydroplaning when you have to much water on the road surface,” he explained.
Above, see Matt Kirkwood give the method a try.
Of course, it’s better to avoid a spinout in the first place. There are things you can do to avoid losing control.
“Three biggest things that we’re teaching is time and distance and speed reduction,” MSP Sgt. John Looney said. “Plan more time: It’s going to take you more time to get there because you can’t go as fast. You have to slow your vehicle down because it takes that much longer to stop on the slippery roads. And the distance between you and other vehicles around you, especially in front of you: You can’t have the same following distance that you normally would on dry pavement as you do slippery, so increase that distance.”