You've seen this sign a half a hundred times if you've seen it once: Bridge Freezes Before Road. It means just what you think, but most people don't really think about it.
That ramp, that overpass -- hey man, it's slippery. Our area just had its first snowfall, which means that we had an uptick in accidents. The correlation is 1:1. I went out to do my shift at the local KoC Christmas tree sale Saturday night and on the way back I had a choice to take the left or right fork home. I chose left. I chose wrong.
Of course I was down to nearly fumes on the gas tank, so I chose the more direct and (I thought) safer way home. Except that way goes over an overpass. Snow and rain, plus a little melt and re-freeze meant that There Be Dragons Here. As luck would have it, I had just passed the last exit before the overpass and hadn't yet reached the turn off beyond the overpass when I saw The Accident.
Three cars spun out in crazy angles across the bridge. There was thick black smoke roiling out of one car, and the orange flames licked wickedly against the cold darkness of the night. Emergency vehicles quickly blocked any hope of escape the way I had come; people got out of their cars in the freezing cold to watch. Some people with better transmissions than mine made a break for it across the median. It was impressive to watch them gun it on the ice, only to spin the tires at fantastic speed to little effect. Somehow they made it across; me, I'm not that adventurous.
A little reading lesson is in order. If "the weather outside if frightful", and it's been snowing during the day, but the road looks wet -- that's called "black ice". And if the road is like that, then the bridge is suicide. Cold air above and below the bridge has turned the road into a skating rink. Take heed of the sign: the bridge is frozen.
I wish I'd had this little chat with myself five minutes sooner.
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