Engineers and prisoners alike risked life and limb as they built the two-lane highway into the majestic coastal cliffs of the Santa Lucia mountains. The 18-year project eventually connected San Luis Obispo to Carmel via the seaside, where the geology makes the road inherently susceptible to landslides. The 1937 grand opening even included a symbolic blasting of a boulder, which the governor cleared from the road with a bulldozer. It was the first of many to come.

Now, incessant storms are causing landslide trouble on Highway 1. Again.

Multiple problems

A 45-mile section of Highway 1 extending from Deetjen’s Big Sur Inn in Monterey County to Ragged Point in San Obispo County is currently closed due to landslides, with no estimate on when it will reopen. And residents, businesses and Caltrans crews along the Big Sur coast are bracing for more geological activity as winter storms continue rolling in.

Closures like this along the Big Sur coast are not uncommon. Residents and businesses aren’t surprised when they are temporarily cut off from the world. Caltrans engineers know they must move mountains off the road. Repeatedly.

But nobody gives up on California’s crown jewel highway, which is recognized by the U.S. Department of Transportation as a National Scenic Byway. Laborers, who seem to be working continuously to repair damage and rebuild sections after landslides, are lauded as heroes, and locals host celebrations for reopenings.

‘Challenges and rewards’

“A ribbon of highway on the edge of the continent presents challenges — and rewards,” said Kevin Drabinski, the Caltrans District 5 public information officer.

“We make these closures for the safety of the traveling public. It’s an international travel destination, and, just as important, it’s home to communities and businesses. So we try and do the best we can to keep it open,” he said.

Landslides come with the geology of the area. “It’s old ocean floor stuff that makes up a lot of the California coast that’s been accreted or pushed up on the continent, so it’s been faulted and folded and distorted and weakened,” said Gary Griggs, a professor of Earth Sciences at UC Santa Cruz.

Landslides on Highway 1 usually happen during storms, when water hits soil, making the soil heavy, lubricated and more fluid. Gravity sends chunks of mobilized mountainside plunging from steep, sweeping cliffsides into the crashing waves below — or onto the highway.

Caltrans prepares for winter storms in the fall. Crews inspect and clean out culverts, which Drabinski describes as the “unsung heroes of Highway 1.” Some workers even rappel from the cliffs with picks and other tools in hand to dislodge loose rocks. Worker safety is always a priority.

The goal is to make the cliffs as stable as possible going into the winter. “We put special focus on areas that are downslope of the Dolan fire burn scar,” said Drabinski. Previously burned areas are especially prone to slides when the rains start.

The precarious road has been closed due to landslides dozens of times since it first opened in 1937. The road closed 55 times between 1937 and 2001, according to a 2001 report.

The worst event in that period was a 963-foot-high landslide in 1983 near Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park. The New York Times reported that it took 13 months, 30 bulldozers, 7,700 pounds of explosives, and $7.8 million to clear it, and one bulldozer operator lost his life in the process. When it reopened, residents threw a party with bands, balloons and a 52-foot-long carrot cake, according to the New York Times.

More recent winters have produced some of the worst — and most costly — landslides in the road’s history. Each time, Caltrans has been prepared and quick to respond.

In February 2017 a landslide displaced a damaged column of the Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge. Crews demolished and completely replaced the bridge with a new $21.7 million bridge designed to reduce its susceptibility to landslides. The new bridge was completed in October 2017 after an effort to design and construct a new bridge quickly that Jim Shivers, a Caltrans spokesperson, described in a 2017 article as ”remarkable.”

But the road remained closed to the south — in May that same year, a landslide had buried the highway near Mud Creek, just north of the Big Sur Lookout. The massive event, described in the national news by Executive Director of the Big Sur Chamber of Commerce Stan Russell, as “the mother of all landslides,” buried a quarter-mile section of the highway 40 feet deep. The road reopened 14 months — and $54 million — later.

In January 2021, the road itself collapsed into the sea leaving a steep and terrifying void where the mountainside used to be. But Caltrans took advantage of subsequent dry weather and restored the road faster than anticipated. It reopened in April 2021, nearly two months ahead of schedule and only three months after the initial event.

The repeated cycle of damage and repair seems tedious, but there aren’t many other options for a coastal highway built into the mountainside.

“I think it’s always going to be this Band-Aid approach,” said Griggs. “We fix it up and wait for the next one, but it’s a place where that’s the only choice.”

“We do put a lot of resources into maintaining Highway 1 on the Big Sur coast,” said Drabinski. “It’s prompted out of service to the residents and businesses of the Big Sur community and to the travelers who return there because of its natural wonder.”

Normally response crews can approach Paul’s Slide, one of the current trouble spots, from the south. “When the highway is open, we just shoot up from Cambria, go right up the road past Ragged Point and deliver the goods,” he said. But with the southern closure, everything has to detour and enter from the north.

Drabinski said it’s “certainly likely” that conditions will worsen if the rains continue.

Caltrans said in the press release that they “will continue to take advantage of any break in inclement weather to assess road conditions and provide access as long as the conditions are favorable for public travel.”

When Highway 1 does open again, “the best way to view the scenic wonders of the Monterey coast is to park one’s car frequently and to enjoy the views at leisure,” according to a 1937 article in the Monterey Peninsula Herald. “Fortunately the great slides that have taken place during construction have resulted in scores of wide parking spaces, nearly all of them at points where the vistas are the most remarkable.”

That seems to be their standard answer. The area I noted has been this way for at least four years now.

I know I echo many residents in the Santa Clara Valley when I say how bad our roads are! I voted yes for taxes associated with SB1 several years ago, but really see no improvement (except recently reviving Highway 17 through Campbell into Los Gatos). I will not vote yes on any proposed state or local road improvement ballot measures until I see tangible improvements to our roads.

Mark Milioto Sr., San Jose

A: The state has set aside more than $50 billion to smooth out roads over the next decade. The challenge is that the need is much greater than that, and the need has increased with all the rain these last three weeks.

Q: Roads in the Bay Area are in deplorable condition everywhere.

Interstate 880 through Fremont has become so rough and the noise level from it so high that I wear earplugs to protect my hearing. (We hear about air pollution, but noise pollution is significant, as well. Hearing loss is permanent!).

It seems like Caltrans took advantage of the pandemic to forge ahead on pet projects and neglected basic responsibilities.

Is there any way to compel Caltrans to prioritize restoration and maintenance of our roadways so they are at least safe to drive on? Who makes their decisions and who do they answer to?

Lynne Mercer

A: Caltrans has begun to prioritize maintenance over some other projects. Significant rain damage is going to require even more of that.

Q: After reading the recent front page story about potholes, I counted the potholes as I drove 101 in both directions between Whipple Avenue and 92.

I counted at least 46 potholes, varying in size from 1 to 15 feet long, within that 9-mile freeway stretch, 7 on the southbound route and 39 on the northbound route.

This roadway was completely renovated within the past 2 years. Until December, it had fresh, smooth, quiet pavement that was a joy to drive on.

I expect better results when Caltrans spends millions of dollars, and say a contractor owes us answers. Is this recently-completed project really degrading so badly so soon? And what does Caltrans say about this?

Richard Thomas, Redwood City

A: You’re right. This renovation should have held up better than it has. Roads and repairs need to handle greater extremes of weather now, from September’s searing heat dome to the deluge of recent days.

Look for Gary Richards at Facebook.com/mr.roadshow or contact him at mrroadshow@bayareanewsgroup.com.

The county, along with much of the state, will remain under a flood watch through the evening Monday as saturated soils struggle to absorb storm runoff. Urban and small stream flooding is expected, according to the National Weather Service.

On Monday morning, flooded Highway 37 remained closed in Novato between Highway 101 and Atherton Avenue — the second lengthy closure since the rains began. Caltrans announced that as of 11 a.m. the eastbound lanes and one westbound lane had reopened, but that the rightmost westbound lane would remain closed with no projection yet on when it would reopen.

Monday is expected to remain partly sunny and with sun forecast all day Tuesday. A rainy afternoon Wednesday will clear out overnight before a sunny end to the week and weekend, according to the NWS.

Wednesday’s weather system “will be the final rainmaker for a while and thankfully this will move through the area quickly,” according to the agency’s forecast. “High pressure then builds over the region allowing things to dry out into at least early next week, if not beyond.”

There will be colder overnight temperatures in the next week, increasing risk of frost, according to the NWS.

Approximately 75 Pacific Gas and Electric Co. customers had no power on Monday morning, according to the utility’s outage map.

Several roads in West Marin remained closed Monday according to the county’s website, including Fairfax-Bolinas Road, which has been closed since Jan. 4.

The shooting reportedly occurred in the area of Highway 1 and Mar Monte Avenue. The shooter, who reportedly fled the scene, was probably known to the victim, according to Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Ashley Keehn.

Law enforcement officers were searching for the suspect, in a white Honda Odyssey van, and they employed Project R.O.P.E., or Roadblock Observations Plan of Enforcement. The countywide alert calls on law enforcement agencies to monitor likely escape routes. Shortly before 5 p.m., the Sheriff’s Office released the emergency alert status.

“Detectives are actively working on this case, and we will have more information when it becomes available,” Keehn said of the search Monday evening.

NEW YORK (AP) — Officials are investigating a close call at a New York airport Friday night between a plane that was crossing a runway and another that was preparing for takeoff.

“(Expletive)! Delta 1943, cancel takeoff clearance! Delta 1943, cancel takeoff clearance!” an air controller said in an audio recording of Air Traffic Control communications when he noticed the other plane, operated by American Airlines, crossing in front. The recording was made by LiveATC, a website that monitors and posts flight communications.

Delta Air Lines’ departing Boeing 737 plane then came to a safe stop on the John F. Kennedy International Airport runway as the other crossed in front around 8:45 p.m., the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement.

Brian Healy, a passenger on the Delta flight, said at first he thought the abrupt stop was a mechanical issue.

“There was this abrupt jerk of the plane, and everyone was sort of thrust forward from the waist,” he recalled. “There was an audible reaction when the brakes happened, like a gasp. And then there was a total silence for a couple of seconds.”

Healy, who was traveling with his husband for their winter getaway to the Dominican Republic, said it wasn’t until he was scrolling on Twitter the next day that he realized the gravity of what could have happened on that runway.

“The pilot made the call to only share information on a need-to-know basis, and that was absolutely the right call, because it would’ve been pandemonium,” he said.

John Cox, a retired pilot and professor of aviation safety at the University of Southern California, said he thought the controller “made a good call to reject the takeoff.”

He said the rejected takeoff safety maneuver, which is when pilots stop the aircraft and discontinue the takeoff, is one they are “very, very familiar with.”

“Pilots practice rejected takeoff almost every time they get to the simulator,” he said.

The Delta plane stopped about 1,000 feet (about 0.3 kilometers) from where the American Airlines plane had crossed from an adjacent taxiway, according to the FAA statement.

The plane returned to the gate, where the 145 passengers deplaned and were provided overnight accommodations, a Delta spokesperson said. The flight to Santa Domingo Airport in the Dominican Republic took off Saturday morning.

The Federal Aviation Administration said Saturday that it will investigate.

The National Transportation Safety Board also said it was looking into the case.

“They’ll go back and listen to every transmission between the American jet and air traffic control to see who misunderstood what,” Cox said.

“Delta will work with and assist aviation authorities on a full review of flight 1943 on Jan. 13 regarding a successful aborted takeoff procedure at New York-JFK. We apologize to our customers for the inconvenience and delay of their travels,” a Delta spokesperson said in a statement.

American Airlines would not comment on the incident and said it would defer all questions to the FAA.

___

This story was first published on January 15, 2023. It was updated on January 16, 2023 to correct the misspelling of the last name of one of the passengers. The correct spelling of his full name is Brian Healy, not Brian Heale.

___

Maysoon Khan is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Maysoon Khan on Twitter.

She does not use a smart phone so can’t call Uber or Lyft. She has a GoGoGrandparent account, calls them by landline, and they call Uber/Lyft on her behalf.

www.gogograndparent.com

Janice Weaver

A: And another….

Q: I recommend GoGoGrandparent, designed to help seniors who don’t use a smart phone summon an Uber or Lyft. The drivers provide the extra care that seniors need, getting into and out of the vehicle, and up to the door of their building. The senior calls GoGoGrandparent, employees call for the car and direct the driver to the pickup or drop-off point.

Sue Kayton, Menlo Park

A: I love the moniker “Go Go Grandparent.” It seems like another good way to keep seniors as independent as possible.

Q: A Clipper card provides one “ticket” to public transit throughout the Bay Area at a discounted rate. The senior Clipper card is one of the best bargains in the area, especially once one has learned the many travel options it makes available.

Fremont provides training in using it and a senior Clipper card can be issued when a person takes the class.

A perk of completing the class is the local field trips available only to those who have taken the class. Travel for these trips, about one a month, is via transportation that uses the Clipper card. The best one I took was a tour of Oracle Park.

Linda Sepeda, Oakland

A: Still more…

Q: The Stanford Marguerite shuttle service is free, one doesn’t need to be a Stanford affiliate of any kind, and it has multiple routes. Now that Stanford has a presence in Redwood City, it even goes there, as well as to the Fremont and Union City BART stations! https://transportation.stanford.edu/marguerite

Carol Zink, Redwood City

A: Good to know.

Q: I wish that, in discussions about getting people out of cars, regardless of age or infirmity, there were a focus on making it EASIER to leave the car behind, instead of making driving harder. Most transit systems seem designed by youngish, able-bodied persons who focus on commuter needs, not day-to-day needs of family care, socializing, errands, etc.

The places we need to go, things we need to do, and time we have to do them in makes public transit impossible. Infirmity also makes it impossible.

I grew up in Oakland and public transit was great as a kid and young adult, but has been a non-starter for many years now.

Claire Lomax, Oakland

A: That’s all for today, folks.

Look for Gary Richards at Facebook.com/mr.roadshow or contact him at mrroadshow@bayareanewsgroup.com.

Millions of chickens have gone unfed as rail disruptions delay corn shipments to a California poultry farm, according to documents that provide unique details of how one shipper has suffered from poor rail service.

Foster Farms, which processes about 1 million chickens and 12,000 turkeys every day, has said it’s had to pause some operations because of delays from Union Pacific Corp., the second-largest freight railroad in North America.

The supply issues also forced the company to shut down a plant that processes raw corn into animal feed to sell, it said in federal filings. That meant cutting off its dairy farm customers from corn meal and giving priority to its chickens, which start killing each other when they go hungry.

After a flurry of correspondence that offers unfiltered insight into shippers’ problems with rail service, the US Surface Transportations Board ordered Union Pacific on Dec. 30 to deliver more corn-laden trains to Foster Farms.

This is the second time in the past year Foster Farms has asked the rail regulator to intervene directly because of Union Pacific’s failure to deliver animal-feed trains on time. It’s also the latest in a long-simmering tussle between shippers and railroads, which have seen profits rise even as carloads dwindle.

“These service failures, which began in February 2022, have resulted in numerous instances where Foster Farms has suspended its production and distribution of feed for tens of thousands of dairy cattle and tens of millions of chickens and turkeys,” the company said in a letter to the regulatory agency.

Suppliers like Foster Farms complain they have no viable alternative to using rail and can be captive to one carrier. Disturbances to these operations could potentially risk supplies for major food retailers including Costco Wholesale Corp. and Walmart Inc., which stock Foster Farms products.

The Livingston, California-based processor, which is owned by Atlas Holdings LLC, says it is the largest chicken grower in the Western US, with about $3 billion of annual sales. It said it resorted to hauling supplies by truck, but couldn’t find enough capacity and faced soaring costs. It takes 400 trucks to handle the same amount of grain as one 100-car train.

Foster Farms declined to comment beyond statements in public filings.

“Union Pacific is working closely with Foster Farms, providing daily updates and delivering the trains addressed in the order,” the railroad said in an emailed statement. “We continue to experience significant weather delays, including washouts in California, blizzards in the Midwest and rockslides in Nevada.”

Michael Booth, an STB spokesperson, said: “The Board is reviewing all relevant information and determining if further action is necessary.”

Service Breakdown

Union Pacific has been at the forefront of a recent nationwide rail service breakdown that has plagued all carriers including Warren Buffett’s BNSF Railway Co., its closest competitor in the West, and CSX Corp. and Norfolk Southern Corp. in the East. Railroads have pointed to difficulties hiring train crews since the pandemic hit, along with usual disruptions such as weather and derailments.

Shippers and unions say the problems began with an industrywide cost-cutting push about five years ago that slashed workforces, closed switching yards and parked locomotives. The five largest US-based rails had a 7% drop in carloads versus a decade ago. Under an efficiency strategy known as Precision Scheduled Railroading introduced in the US in 2017, the railroads revamped customer schedules and slashed costs.

“You can only cut so far and they’ve already cut more than they should have, especially as far as employees,” said Daniel Elliott, a principal with GKG Law and a former chairman of the Surface Transportation Board.

The decline in carloads over the last decade coincided with a windfall for the railroads. Net income for the five largest carriers jumped by 75% over the past 10 years. Adjusted operating profit margins rose to a record 41% in 2021 from less than 16% two decades ago.

After successful deregulation legislation in 1980 that rescued railroads from the brink of bankruptcy, carriers became more productive and improved service, allowing profits to rise as shipping rates fell. A wave of consolidation that also followed reduced the large railroads operating in the US to seven from about 40, transforming the competitive landscape.

The railroads’ power to affect service to its customers makes shippers hesitant to publicly criticize rail companies, according to trade groups. The American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers said in a Dec. 15 written testimony that its members are “fearful of potential backlash” and one declined to provide service information for the STB’s hearing on Union Pacific “since such testimony could be linked back to their company leaving them vulnerable to retaliation or other subtler recourse from UP.”

The Surface Transportation Board is seeking to correct the imbalance, but has limited power. In December, it called on Union Pacific to explain a spike of service-limit notices designed to alleviate network congestion.

“It’ll be interesting to watch what happens over these next couple of years and see if the railroads do take a little bit of a turn” in their strategy, Elliott said.

‘Every Minute Now Counts’

“We are about to kill millions of chickens,” said Phil Greene, vice president of Foster Farms, in a June 14 email to a Union Pacific executive. “Every minute now counts as we try to save lives. You have never put us in this situation 5 days late with no inventory and 40 to 50 million chickens to feed.”

The next day, Foster Farms filed its petition for an emergency service order. The railroad replied to the petition by accepting blame for poor service and proposed a plan to divert locomotives and crews to increase the trains. Chief Executive Officer Lance Fritz weighed in to spur action.

“Foster Farms is a vitally important Union Pacific customer. However, we have failed to provide adequate service to Foster Farms,” Fritz said in a June 16 letter to the regulator. “I am writing to convey Union Pacific’s firm and clear commitment to providing Foster Farms the service it deserves and the service we expect to provide.”

On June 17, the board unanimously granted Foster Farms’ petition, directing Union Pacific to supply the required trains and report on their status for 30 days. After the 30-day period, the board declined to extend the order. By October, Union Pacific again wasn’t providing enough trains to keep corn stocks fully replenished, Foster Farms said.

The winter storms in December exacerbated the problem and Foster Farms again had to truck in grain in attempt to feed its and customers’ livestock. This time Union Pacific blamed the weather. The board on Dec. 30 ordered the railroad to deliver five grain trains that Union Pacific said would arrive by Jan. 3.

“With the exception of one train, UP did not deliver the five trains on the schedule it represented to the Board and to Foster Farms,” the poultry producer said in a Jan. 4 letter.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com

©2023 Bloomberg L.P.

I was involved in a three-car accident where a woman decided to stop on a four-lane road to let a driver enter from a side street. When she stopped, a car speeding in the same lane decided to go around her and was hit by the car from the side street. This caused the speeder to hit my car head-on while I was stopped, waiting to make a left turn. I saw it coming, but there was nothing I could do.

Henry Sorensen

A: This is an example of situations when drivers who don’t adhere to the rules of the road and right-of-way can cause confusion, or much worse, as your experience shows. It’s best, and nicer, for all if everyone follows the rules of the road. Anyone who needs a refresher can check the latest version of the California DMV’s Driver Handbook at ://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/handbook/california-driver-handbook/

Q: While your answer to a question by Jeff E. recently about parking on a grassy area along a roadside is technically correct, drivers should be reminded of the hazards of parking a car with a hot exhaust/catalytic converter on dry grass. Many fires have been started this way.

Deborah Wettstein

A: And…

Q: Drivers should avoid parking on dry grass during the summer and fall (when it’s dry and there’s no rain). The hot undercarriage of a car can start a fire when it comes into contact with dry grass. So many people are unaware of this serious hazard.

Linda Landau, Orinda

A: An excellent reminder. While the risk of a hot car being parked on dry grass seems far away with all the rain now, the hot, dry days of summer will return.

Q: I’m emailing you on behalf of my 3-year-old son who has a question regarding the intersection and train tracks at Evelyn and Mary in Sunnyvale. If the power is out and the stoplights are not working, will the train crossing arms still come down to keep us safe if the train comes?

Elaine Wong

A: Most railroad crossings have battery packs to make sure the crossing arms will work when normal power is out. Sometimes, though, that is not the case. Use the same caution you would at an unmarked railroad crossing. Slow down and be prepared to stop. Look both ways, and listen carefully to make sure you do not see or hear a train coming from either direction, on any track. If you see or hear a train, stop at a safe distance from the closest track and wait to proceed until the train passes.

Look for Gary Richards at Facebook.com/mr.roadshow or contact him at mrroadshow@bayareanewsgroup.com.

A mom and daughter in their Nissan, and a male driver and his passenger in a pickup truck, escaped from the dark, gaping, flooded hole on Monday night after their vehicles fell, without warning, into a cavernous gap in Iverson Road just yards from the 118 Freeway in northern Chatsworth.

Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Brian Humphrey said on Wednesday Jan. 11 that the second vehicle, carrying the two men, fell into the hole and landed atop the first car in which the women were trapped, and the men “got out on their own and scrambled out of the sinkhole prior to our arrival.”

RELATED: Pesky potholes: Bay Area storm brings rash of new roadway damage

The mother and daughter faced a more harrowing situation, trapped in the dark in their Nissan as the San Fernando Valley got hammered by an “atmospheric river” storm.

Iverson Road was so unstable that LAFD rescuers who arrived Monday night couldn’t work near the edge of the cavern, and the city’s helicopters were grounded due to the fierce winds and extreme downpour.

That gave rescuers only one option: A large crew of LAFD rescuers “used ladders and a harness system for a rope rescue with aerial and ground ladders,” Humphrey said. “The rescuer was in a harness” in order to reach the mother and daughter.

On Wednesday, he said, the “Department of Street Works and other city officials are there, with experts to assess the soil and investigate so this doesn’t happen again.” The city crews are “trying to understand what happened” he said.

On Tuesday, city crews salvaged the two wrecked vehicles and secured the site several blocks north of The Church at Rocky Peak. A huge excavator lifted the crushed vehicles out — even as a sewer pipeline that had been unburied by the sinkhole leaked sewage into the growing hole.

More rain is coming later this week.

Crews from the L.A. Department of Public Works are working to shore up the gaping section of Iverson Road several yards south of columns that hold up the nearby 118 Freeway. On Wednesday, the sinkhole was estimated to be roughly 40 feet deep.

A: This El Niño season provides a good opportunity to review best practices for driving in the rain. About 50 percent of flood deaths occur with automobiles. Here are tips from the California Highway Patrol, Ray-the-Tow-Truck-Man, and the AAA.

1. Slow down.
2. Wipers on, lights on. It’s the law.
3. Drive in the tire prints of cars ahead. When a car hydroplanes, it’s riding on a thin layer of water between the tires and road. Water in tire prints has already been displaced, so you get better traction.
4. Stay toward the middle lanes. Water tends to pool in outside lanes.
5. If your car hydroplanes, hold the steering wheel steady and lightly apply brakes.
6. If the steering feels light, gently ease off the accelerator and allow the car to slow. Don’t abruptly hit the brakes.
7. If in a skid, do not brake heavily, jerk the steering wheel or panic. Turn your steering wheel into the direction of the skid and gently brake. You may feel a vibration when pressing the brake pedal. Sensors in anti-lock brakes adjust to the wet road, which is why the pedal vibrates.
8. Never drive over a downed power line. If a wire touches your car, do not get out of your car unless it is on fire.
9. For motorcyclists, crosswalk lines and pavement arrows are super slick. Ease up on the throttle on takeoff. Limit lane-splitting.
10. Check tires and wipers. Many drivers in accidents say they couldn’t see because their wipers smeared their windshields on a rainy day.
11. Keep a safe distance between you and the vehicle in front.
12. Don’t brake while in a curve. Brake before entering the curve.
13. Use turn signals for lane changes and turns well in advance so it does not surprise another driver.
14. Don’t change lanes excessively or needlessly.
15. Dark traffic signals or blinking red lights mean everyone must stop.
16. Make sure tires have sufficient tread and are properly inflated.
17. Be aware of the spray coming from passing and oncoming vehicles.
18. Pay attention. Turn down the radio and turn off the phone.
19. Never drive through moving water if you can’t see the ground through it: Your car could be swept off the road. If water is deeper than the bottom of your doors or the bottom third of your wheels, turn around. It can take as little as 6 inches of water to cause you to lose control of your vehicle. Most vehicles will float if there is 18 inches of water.

Look for Gary Richards at facebook.com/mr.roadshow or contact him at mrroadshow@bayareanewsgroup.com.