Driving Lessons with Mom: how to hit the ditch (and get out again)

It’s barely snowing as I shift through fourth gear on the road out of town. The man on the radio says it’s time for the road report and I turn it up slightly, expecting the usual rundown of city roads that doesn’t affect me. Instead, another man comes on who claims to be northbound on the highway out of the city, approaching the same overpass I can see just ahead of me; he says he’s just passed his eleventh vehicle in the ditch since he left the city an hour ago.

Great, I think. Roads are icy and I’m driving our “new” car for the first time. Right away I wish I had my Jeep TJ back, with its familiarity and trusty 4×4. We bought this car—a 1991 diesel Jetta—for its gas mileage after our truck got totaled in one of the bad snowstorms before Christmas. My husband has spent the past few weeks tinkering with the car, getting it running fine, and today is our virgin run together. So, little car, I think, let’s see how the roads are.

I merge onto the highway without problems and within five minutes see the first three cars in the median. The highway doesn’t seem that icy to me and I think back to one of my first driving lessons. It began on a country back road, where I was waiting in a driveway for a big dump truck to go past when Mom told me just to go. So I pulled into the road and as my old rusty Chevy truck climbed the hill, all I could see in my rear view mirror was the dump truck grill.

I began going a bit faster and a bit faster, until I’d hit the 80-km speed limit and left the truck behind. I smiled; I was doing this driving thing just fine! As the road wound through a few hills, I kept up my speed and Mom said nothing. The road turned to gravel and still I was doing 80 km/hr. Then, as the road curved around a broad corner, the back end of the truck began to slide on the gravel. I slammed my foot down on the break as hard as I could. The truck swung completely around, slid sideways into the ditch and stopped with a shudder facing back the way we’d come.

I was shaking as I stared through the windshield. I’d just put the truck in the ditch. My dad would never let me drive again. I couldn’t even remember what I’d done to get the truck there. Then Mom said calmly, “Well, let’s keep going.”

I looked at her. She told me I could either do a 3-point turn here or go back to a driveway we’d passed earlier and turn around there. Since I was too frazzled to figure out a three-point turn then, I elected to go back to the driveway. Mom walked me through the 3-point turn there and I drove home at a much more moderate speed. She never mentioned that incident to me again.

It took me a few days to remember what I’d done to cause the truck to go into the ditch. Over the next years, though, that lesson stood me in great stead. I learned to steer out of skids, rather than panicking and slamming on my breaks. Over the course of my teen years, I put each of my parents’ vehicles in the ditch during once winter or another—but I always drove out again afterwards (except once, when I had to get a local farmer to pull me out after sliding through an icy corner at 2 km/hr).

Now, as I face icy roads once again in a strange car, I remember that lesson again. Mom’s calm response to landing in the ditch taught me more than anything else while I had my learner’s license. Even today, when I feel my vehicle begin to fishtail underneath me, I can hold onto that calm and simply respond to the road without freaking out (and making it worse, as I did that first time).

For more driving tips, check out:

• How to Teach Your Teenagers about Driving Responsibly
• Drive Into Spring with Wet Weather Driving Wisdom
• Road Trip Ready: Essential Tips for Stress-Free Travel with Kids