Subyland said:
Obviously they all had ABS as we can see (only the ML ???)...and what about the handbrake ???
Satch, sorry to disagree but a good set of winter tyres, especially such as those you can find over there would have given you enough grip to steer out of the lane of stopped cars. I tried some Bridgestone on a frozen lake and was amazed by the grip provided...
No, you are quite right, winter tyres do provide far more grip than might be expected and I have driven up snow covered Apline roads in appalling conditions without chains. But the big problem with winter driving is that road conditions can vary hugely.
I also would have expected cars on winter tyres to do better than those in the video. You can get reasonable grip even on ice if you have well siped winter tyres because of some friction from the multiple points of contact. Any snow covering over ice will help as will irregularities in the surface.
But trouble comes in the shape of tyres that have compacted snow or slush in the treads and thus lose that friction.
A semi polished snow free ice surface, such as that caused by cars with locked wheels sliding over it, is dreadful. If it is wet snow it is even worse because you can get ice/water/rubber interface, very little friction and so even with winter tyres next to no grip nor directional control. In those conditions unless you have spikes, studs or chains to bite into the ice might as well be on skis.
I think that may have happened to the people in the video who were thus stuck in the iced ruts, had gravity working against them and so were effectively helpless.
Only once encountered anything like that and never want to again if I can help it.
