truck and trailer total loss due to black ice

richfaa wrote:

jake2250 wrote:

richfaa wrote:
The term black ice in the United States is often incorrectly used to describe any type of ice that forms on roadways, even when standing water on roads turns to ice as the temperature falls below freezing. Correctly defined, black ice is formed on relatively dry roads, rendering it invisible to drivers. It occurs when in the textures present in all pavements very slightly below the top of the road surface contain water or moisture, thereby presenting a dry surface to tires until that water or moisture freezes and expands; drivers then find they are riding above the road surface on a honeycombed invisible sheet of ice.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_ice

I did post that as it is apparent that most who posted do not know what black ice is or have ever encountered. 60 mph or 6 mph you will never see it and when you hit it you are going for a ride.

Agree with info in this post. Although this part is not accurate...
...(when you hit it you are going for a ride)...
There can be very short pieces of black ice such as in a shady area by trees or a high rockcut, or there can be miles of it on a straight road.
If you are in a turn or do an aggressive steering wheel movement you can lose it on a very short section of black ice before you can react/correct.
But you can drive for miles on it, if relatively straight and no sudden wheel actions.

Many years ago landed at Winnipeg airport at about 6:00 in morning from Mexico. Driving south at about 30F as sun coming up. These prairie roads are straight for up to 100 miles in spots.
Nature called and I put on brakes gently to pull over, my brakes seemed frozen or something and were not really working, so basically coasted over and when got out of truck could barely stand up.
The rising sun had put enough heat in the dry pavement to bring frost out which was immediately a thin layer of invisible ice for miles and miles.
Continued home about 10 MPH slower and very gentle smooth wheel actions with no problems.

What I do now, even when we came south this Dec is this..
Tell the DW, "brake check" then on a perfectly straight section with no other vehicles around, do an aggressive brake application. It either slows down quick (good) or the anti-locks start ratcheting (bad). Now I know.
You have to be experienced and confident enough that you can control situation if you get wiggly here ;)

I would 100% state that lots of folks have unknowingly driven on black ice, incident free, because they are smooth on the wheel, accelorater, and brake pedal; and road was straight at that point.