Air Travel Restrictions Causing More Traffic on Dangerous Icy Roads

With so many airline shutdowns, delays and travel restrictions flying anywhere is pretty difficult right now. I saw numerous friends on social media who were stuck in various airports in random cities due to airline travel complications. Not exactly the best way to spend the holidays. That being said more people are on the roads to visit family or at least get away from home with the time off of work. Driving, especially this time of the year has it's own complications, especially here in Idaho and most of our surrounding states. While heading south may not be as icy or dangerous, local and northern or even eastern and western road trips, even shorter ones are causing havoc on the roadways.

I grew up in Tucson Arizona, certainly unexperienced in icy and snowy driving conditions. However at 21 years old I moved to Anchorage Alaska and learned really quickly how to handle scary, slippery and crazy driving situations. Knock on wood, I have yet to be in a bad accident and feel pretty confident now driving in just about any condition.

Yesterday I drove to Pendleton with my son to drop him off for a week with his father who lives in Portland. Pendleton is a great middle ground between Boise and Portland. I had been keeping an eye on weather and road conditions so I knew what to expect for the most part. That being said the mountains between Onterio and Baker City, just before the Cement plant was nothing but ice when I drove through it. I passed a U-Haul Trailer that was completely tipped over, multiple vehicles that were off to the side, fender benders and then this catastrophic accident with a car and a semi that was dangling off of a massive hillside cliff.

On my way back through about 3 and a half hours later the ice on the roads had for the most part melted and turned to slush but the semi had slipped even further down and was being pulled up by some massive equipment. There are more and more accidents happening all over due to the combo of limited air travel and dangerous road conditions. Please slow down and be careful, overly careful.