For millions of people in the United States, the holiday season hasn’t been especially quiet so far this year. The weather has caused a lot of trouble in many areas around the country and even Seattle saw unusually low temperatures and freezing breezes. December 21 marked only the 11th time Seattle’s lows dipped into the Fahrenheit teens (below 0 Celsius) since 2000, according to different sources. This put some drivers in very unpredictable situations, to say the least.

New footage from Pacific Northwest Weather Watch on YouTube summaries many drivers’ negative experiences from the last few days. The short video attached at the top of this page shows a parked Tesla Model S sliding on thick ice and hitting what looks like a stuck Ford Explorer Interceptor. Seconds later, the electric saloon continues down the street and then crashes into a telephone pole. Luckily, all the action recorder on camera is at very low speed and it is highly unlikely that anyone got hurt.

From what we see, we believe the parking brake of the Tesla is engaged as the rear wheels remain fully blocked during the entire video. We don’t think there’s much to be done in this situation to avoid hitting other cars or objects but one good general rule is to turn your wheel towards the curb and try to kill the vehicle’s speed.

 

Another video shows a very similar situation in a different area in Seattle. This one is even scarier actually – what looks like a Subaru that reportedly has no driver inside slides down a street and hits a few cars before continuing further down and eventually stopping in the middle of an intersection. Again, this happens at low speeds and we believe no one was hurt.

Is there any way to prevent such accidents from happening? If you are on the road, there’s not much you can do. The only really useful advice is – don’t drive, stay at home.