A big change in the autumn weather has Iowans today (Tuesday) digging out the shovels and sand. Rain’s already changing to slushy snow and in some areas it’ll total four or five inches before the wintry front passes.
The state Transportation Department’s winter roads specialist Jerry Burkheimer says tips for winter driving include turning off your cruise control. He says the cruise control tries to maintain the speed you’ve set — so if you programmed it to 70 miles an hour, it’ll try to keep your car going at that rate. When you run into a slippery roadway or questionable conditions, it’s still trying to maintain that speed, and will cause the car to lose traction and make you lose control.
He urges drivers to turn off the Cruise Control when there may be slippery spots on the roadway, because cruise control “May get you into more trouble than you’re prepared for.”