Yesterday morning, all the roads in my area were a sheet of ice. There were dozens of accidents all over the place. They actually shut down the NYS Thruway and the Palisades. We had a baby shower in the city, and by the time we left at 1:30 the roads were open and they seemed just wet. But they had put out warnings to expect the roads to refreeze at night. On top of that, it was pouring all day and a lot of roads had standing water.
So, we're driving back home on the Palisades, which is a 2 lane parkway, and the speed limit is 50. We're in the left hand lane, and there's a good amount of cars on the road. We had just passed a gas station, and there was a small shoulder on the left for people merging in from the gas station.
Some guy was driving like an ass, trying to speed and weave in and out of traffic. I don't know if he thought the merging lane/shoulder was another lane, or if he thought he had enough room to try to get around us and the car in front of us. He came flying past us in the merging lane (probably at 70 mph) and lost control of his car within seconds. He hydroplaned and skidded all over the road. H slowed down, so thankfully we weren't in his line of fire. He hit the guardrail 3 times and came within inches of slamming into the car in front of us. He ended up on the grassy shoulder, but since it was still icy, it took him a long time to slow down. Thank god he didn't hit any other cars.
It totally freaked me out. How is getting to your destination 5 minutes earlier worth risking your life and the lives of others on the road? Especially after all accidents that happened earlier in the day!