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Upside down in a ditch? Here's how it happens

Monday, January 29 at 12:52 PM

By Denny Dressman

If you’ve ever driven past a pickup truck or SUV sitting on its roof in the snow and wondered, as I have, “How on earth did that happen?” this story should help you figure out the answer.

It was seriously snowing as we passed through Idaho Springs on our way back to Denver early last Sunday afternoon. Unexpectedly, traffic began to crawl the way it does after the lifts have closed. But this jam had nothing to do with eastbound skiers.

Up ahead, three Colorado Department of Transportation snowplows in tight formation were clearing the accumulating snow from that stretch of Interstate 70. Seeing the maneuver was a first for me, and I found its precision as impressive as a flyover of fighter jets in formation.

In case you’ve never seen it either, let me tell you how it worked.

In the three-plow phalanx the blade of the lead plow directed the snow from the high-speed lane over in front of the second plow, which was lagging slightly behind. That truck, in turn, deflected the roiling mess into the path of the trailing third plow, whose angled blade propelled it toward the guard rail beyond the slow lane.

So what does that have to do with upside-down vehicles in the medians? The answer is in the way some drivers responded to those lumbering snowplows.

As we proceeded deliberately but steadily, I noticed headlights approaching in the side view mirror on the passenger side of my Cherokee. A pickup truck was closing determinedly in what is a traffic lane in better weather but was an extension of the shoulder in these conditions.

He was going to have to cut in on someone, maybe me, I thought. The plows were less than a hundred yards ahead.

I tensed, expecting to have to avoid either the car in front of me, if it had to brake quickly to make room, or that truck and its crazy driver. But I was wrong. The pickup forged onward, and eventually passed the third plow in a shower of caked snow and road grit.

That fast, the “Parade of the Impatients” was on. Over the next several miles, 50 or 60 pickups, SUVs and, yes, sedans, too, followed the leader. Even drivers near the front of the high-speed left lane, who up to that point had accepted the slow pace, began jockeying for the middle lane as a first move toward busting out and around the plows.

I shook my head and hoped that no one would lose control and spin out. It could have been quite a pileup if they had.

And I wondered what those plow drivers thought, as rude driver after rude driver slogged past them. I decided they have seen it thousands of times. And are probably never puzzled whenever they see another idiot who wouldn’t slow down cattywampus in a ditch.

Denny Dressman is the Rocky’s associate managing editor/administration.

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