Cars going so fast they slide right off of freeway ramps.
Or hit retaining walls so hard they end up teetering atop them.
Or slam into other vehicles already wrecked.
A Kansas Department of Transportation official told me yesterday that the winter storm that hammered Wichita and other parts of Kansas Tuesday was “a learning curve.”
If so, too many people failed the test. Hundreds of accidents, two fatalities, other serious injuries. Veteran law enforcement officials were stunned by the lack of awareness – or was it indifference? – to the conditions even late in the day Tuesday, after snow had been falling and glazing roadways for hours.
Maybe it’s a form of denial…or a dangerous belief that modern vehicle technology can handle anything Old Man Winter tosses at us.
The numerous pile-ups, rollovers and slide-offs reported on Tuesday offered neon evidence to the contrary.
Let’s hope Tuesday was an aberration, not an opening chapter to a winter of destructive driving habits.