感恩节到来了，西雅图今年的感恩节没有下雪，但是7年前感恩节前夕的一场大雪，造成交通大瘫痪和很多车祸，至今仍然心有余悸。写下来，因为雪季已经到来，你或许可以从这次的雪夜行车中得到某种启发，安全行车更有经验。写下来，是为了感恩，感谢我们在北美这块土地上平安过了一年又一年。
2010年11月22日，是感恩节前夕的周一，早上我到西雅图东区，下午就飘起毛毛雪花，傍晚就漫成满天飞雪。虽然天气预报今天会有雪，但没有人知道雪会下得这么大，这么早。
我必须回西雅图，归心似箭，吃过晚饭后才６点多，我就准备启程，但这时车上的雪已有半尺厚。
我打开引擎和热气，清除完车上的积雪后，车子终于上路了，雪也越下越大。
温度表上显示只有华氏２０度，相当摄氏零下７度，雪花飞到玻璃上，马上变成浆糊粘在上面，雨刮吃力地划着它们艰难地前进。
一路走走停停，看到不少车熄火而停到路边，不时有警车呼啸而过，好在大路还没冰冻，车轮接触路面的感觉还是正常的，不会磕磕碰碰。
车子上了５２０大桥，道路状况开始险恶了，原来没有结冰的道路在桥上结冰了，车轮把冰辗压的咔咔响，不时要跳点摇摆舞，更多的车子在桥边抛锚，原来的双线只剩下单线可以行走。
手机响了，刚回来一天的儿子在电话里告诉我，桥上的温度比陆地低，水面风大，容易结冰，开车要分外小心。
刚放下手机，果然看到对面开来一辆双节客车的车头差点撞到路边的挡墙，两节车厢的交点几乎弯曲成直角，斜停在路上，其余的车辆都停了下来，也不知何时才能解围？好在不是我们这个方向的，不然就要遭殃了。
正存侥幸心理，我前面的车都停了，时间一分一秒地考验自己的耐性。我想轻松一下，就打开音响，故做镇定，闭目聆听……
不知过了多久，车队才慢慢爬行。到出事地点，才看到原来是一辆小车打着紧急灯停在桥中线，把原来就很窄的道路又占了半条线的位置，只有减速才能穿过这个通道，这样车就堵了。
这辆小车是应该推向路边的，可能是没人帮忙吧，车主只好停在中间了。我想，如果有多几个人帮忙这位车主的话，也许就不会堵车堵那么久了。也难怪，在这冰冷的的夜晚，有多少人愿意下车来受罪呢？我心里在呼唤雷锋，助人为乐的风格在雪夜中显得更加可贵。
我不知道今晚有多少车熄火，那车里的人要怎样度过这个可怕的夜晚啊！一般车子出事，最好的办法就是打手机，请警车来，但这桥很拥挤，平时桥上出事，警车就很难钻进来，更不用说这个冰天雪地的夜晚。阿门！我只想感恩，好在我的车子没有熄火。
这个晚上，我这趟平时开２０分钟的车，足足开了６小时才到家。最难过的关卡，是在五号高速公路的出口，可以选择往南走或者往北走，往南走道路畅通，我是要往北走，但是走不动了，只有等待。
在等待的半小时里，很多往北走的人改走南的进口。我也想把车头也掉往南算了，但最后一刻终于打住，等！还是等！赌一回运气。因为现在你往南走了，要兜个大圈子再往北，也许那个圈子也堵车。更“找不到北”了。
前面的车终于爬动了，我紧随着进入高速进口，才看到原来是两部小车抛锚了，有人在雪地上推车，刚好推出一个小车能过的缝隙，只有车技好的才能穿过去。
那雪地好滑啊！你一不小心，穿过去的时候万一刮到两边的车子，人家不放你过麻烦就大了。好在我终于穿过去了，冒出一身冷汗。
车子走上五号高速公路，还是步履维艰。谁也不知道前面究竟是发生什么事，只有紧跟，我计算了一下，一小时只走一英里。
实在等不及了，只好开出一个出口，改走当地（ｌｏｃａｌ）的小路。
这时已经开５小时的车了。夜深了，天空一片漆黑，大地却一片白茫茫。路上一辆车都没有，与五号高速公路上拥挤的车流成鲜明的对比，一种孤独感和恐惧感即刻袭来。
街灯在暗夜和白雪中闪烁，不时看到有的少男少女踩着雪具在街道上滑溜，好不逍遥自在。大雪对有的人来说是那么多美好和浪漫！深更半夜了，家家户户都在壁炉前烤火鸡吧？据说这种大雪的日子，屋子里的气氛最温馨，最适合造人。而最不浪漫的感觉只属于开车的人。
小路上积雪太厚，一不小心，你的车子就熄火，或者滑到路边，你是叫天天不应的，以前就有人的车在雪夜出事，到人们发现时，车主已经奄奄一息了，想起来十分可怕。
我小心翼翼，但还是出了险情。有一座公路桥临时封闭，你还是要开回来，重新选择路线。小的车道坡度较陡，雪深近尺，你一不小心就会翻车。我握紧方向盘，找一条比较平坦的路绕弯回头，心里一直默默祈祷，祈祷一路平安。
终于回到家里，已经是１２点半了。如果不是抄小路，可能要多走一个小时。我看了温度表只有华氏族15度，相当于摄氏0下10度。这个风雪之夜，西雅图有几百辆车出事。
我的一些朋友，原来开半小时的车，在高速公路上却开了十几个小时，除了又冷又饿之外，最难以启齿的是没有地方能方便一下，风雪之夜，到洗手间却成为最美妙的回忆。狠多人从傍晚开到清晨，直到耗干汽油熄火，说“雪夜惊魂”不为过。
过后，和网友谈起这次雪夜行车，大家总结了一些经验。一是雪夜开车要准备毛毯和灯火，一旦在偏僻地方出事，可以自己取暖和照明，也便于别人救援你。二是最好有雪胎雪链。三是在雪季来临之前，要及时更换雨刮的橡皮，因为老的雨刮橡皮平时看起来可以应付大雨，但是一到冰雪天，橡皮承受的压力加重，就不能顺畅地划过玻璃，就可能影响你的视线。四是油门要轻踩，可以把变速箱减到低档，让汽车自动减速，严禁急刹车。五是把车胎放掉一些汽，车胎越软，越能防滑。这些都很值得借鉴。
以下是西雅图时报关于11.22大雪的一篇文章
November 23, 2010 at 11:43 AM
Twitter becomes friend, lifeline during 9.5 hour commute from Seattle to Tacoma
Posted by Tiffany Campbell
Around mid-Beacon Hill on Southbound I-5 last night, I began to realize what a dumb idea it was to attempt to drive home.
I didn't leave in the afternoon, before dark. I didn't pack an overnight bag. And I waved off several generous offers of a place to stay before leaving the city. At 6:45 p.m., I sealed my fate by pulling onto I-5 Southbound. I wouldn't arrive home in Tacoma until 4:15 a.m.
Things started slow and steady, but after nearly two hours, my progress slowed from a roll to parked. And with hands free to start checking my Twitter and other reports, I realized I was in for it. And to clarify: my car was in park while I was tweeting.
I had a half tank of gas, two Luna bars, my iphone and a half bottle of water. These items, plus a social media lifeline, would be my only companions for the rest of the night.
This is where I realized I was actually so far left as to be crawling along on the shoulder. I was surrounded by a wall of cars, idling, while the snow kept falling.
Finally, on Twitter, I first learned from @KING5Seattle that all lanes were blocked at the bottom of Boeing Field - a jack-knifed semi, a bus, other vehicles.
People kept calling and it was difficult to explain how trapped I was. In the far left shoulder, the wall of cars was not moving. Merging and changing lanes was not an option. I was also stuck at the North end of Boeing field, in between exits (I also couldn't see the exits, being in a smaller car and blocked in by semi-trucks, SUVs, etc.)
And so I sat. And Twitter became my lifeline.
I started tweeting updates to the Twittersphere, my @seattletimes colleagues, @KING5Seattle and others who were watching the mess and aggregating tweets from other increasingly desperate souls.
Hours passed. And I mean hours. It's hard to say what the most uneventful part was, but if I had to pick, it would be the crawl from the North end of Boeing Field to about the middle.
At the 4 hour mark, things started to get interesting. People were out of their cars, knocking on windows, waving their arms in exasperation. Many of them were walking for gas - I saw two young women trundling gas back in a milk jug.
A woman in front of me for several hours finally erupted out of her car, leapt over the guardrail and into the brush, flailing deeper behind some trees, clearly to pee. I suspected she had been eyeing that for awhile. When she emerged, she was covered in snow. She was my sister.
Finally, what had been a roll became dead stops for long stretches. I was grateful for tweets from @KING5Seattle, @wsdot and others, which were keeping me updated and also made me feel like someone else was awake, nearby and watching out for me.
The tweets let me relax a bit. If things got bad, if something worse happened, I felt like I had a major lifeline out.
Meanwhile, certain tweeters were becoming famous in the I-5 Twittershpere: @paolojr a fellow Tacoma commuter, was several miles ahead of me but keeping good humor.
Check out a sampling of his feed from last night here.
Then, it started to get creepy. It was dark, the wind was blowing, I had idled through a quarter tank of gas. I was worried about running out and having to walk. There were dozens of abandoned vehicles, strewn everywhere.
Twitter reports stated that lanes were open and the end was in sight. Then more reports of accidents at the same place, medical emergencies. Twitter was at once highly accurate and also highly subjective, depending on your location.
Eventually, I started to maneuver around the the abandoned vehicles. Some had their hazards on, some were dark. They were in the left lane or the right shoulder. As I progressed, some were in the middle of the lanes. Then, disabled semi-trucks emerged out of the darkness, stopped on the side or smack in the middle of the lanes. It looked like a scene out of any apocalypse movie, where the people abandon their cars on the clogged freeways as they escape.
I was far enough behind to the original accident that I never saw a crew or police. Around 48th Avenue South, just past the exits for MLK, things began to break free. Lanes were more theoretical at this point, with people maneuvering around several semis, in the middle lanes, who had stopped and were chaining up. The road was pure, lumpy ice at this point, but we were crawling so slow, not that many people were sliding. At about 2:45 a.m. I broke through the worst of it.
I was free! Except, I still had 30 miles to go to get home to Tacoma. I had assumed that with the epic backup behind me, the freeway ahead of me would be clear. I was wrong. For another hour and 15 minutes, I drove 25 to 30 miles an hour, gripping the steering wheel, my husband on speakerphone to keep me awake and calm, as I rumbled over snow and ice on I-5. I had not seen a plow or any other official crew in over 8 hours.
At 4:15 a.m. I pulled into my driveway, more than 9 hours after I'd left work. I'd been up for 22 hours. I was grateful to be safe.
http://old.seattletimes.com/html/reweb/2013503017_my_95_hour_commute_from_seattle_to_tacoma.html
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