(WWJ) – Winter may not officially start until late December, but we're getting a taste of it this week in Metro Detroit, with a coating to an inch of snow, icy roads and lowered visibility causing trouble on the roads on Monday.
Michigan is no stranger to winter weather wreaking havoc on the roads, as the state of Michigan says there were more than 35,000 winter crashes between 2021 and 2022. Of those crashes, about 4,000 of them caused injury and 78 caused death.
As drivers hit the roads at the beginning of another winter driving season, what can be done to reduce those numbers? WWJ's Zach Clark learns on a new Daily J podcast the answer lies in the drivers themselves.
"Weather does not cause crashes. Poor driving does," said Michigan State Police First Lt. Mike Shaw, who says the type of vehicle you're driving doesn't make much of a difference in the snow.
"Four-wheel drive in a pickup truck or an SUV is just 'four-wheel slide' in the wintertime. There's nothing in your SUV, no matter how big it is, or that pickup -- when you hit that patch of ice, all four tires are still gonna do the same thing," Shaw said.
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