Top
: When they drove beautiful straight road of Highway 62 in Oregon with high
and large trees on both side, the rain was changed to snow as the elevation
became higher (about 4,000 ft.)
Center
: They had to make a decision whether they should continue the trip taking a
risk or turn back at this point. As the snow became quite heavier, they had
to turn back there though there were only little more than 20 miles left to
the Crater Lake. (On-Koo was busy to take pictures of snowy scenery.)
They turned back
and drove several miles. However, since there were only 20 miles left, it
was not easy to give up after one and half days' drive from Fremont. In
addition, since it seemed the snow stopped, they changed mind, turned back
again and drove again to Crater Lake.
Little further
after they passed the place where they turned back previously, the road to
the Crater Lake only started soon and there were not many cars to/from
Crater Lake. As there were not many cars, the snow on the road was not melt
as much as the previous road and it was a lot more slippery. D. I. drove
very carefully slowing down. However, after only a few miles, suddenly, the
car skidded to the right, hit the snow at the road side, bounced back and
spinned 450 degrees instantly stopping perpendicularly to the road - one
complete rotation and 90 degrees further. It was the matter of a second only
and everyone in the car were so scared. As it could be expected, D. I. was
well prepared and could control the car immediately stopping safely.
However, the other 3 ladies were really scared and they decided to go back
without any hesitation this time. There were no injury to passengers nor any
damage to the car at all as it hit the soft snow at slow speed. It was lucky
enough that it happened at the beginning of the road to the lake at flat
place. What if it had happened later further to the lake, especially at the
down hill, as the up and down road was about to start with many sharp turns
to climb about 2,000 feet more to the lake?
Bottom
: They took this picture about a mile back from the place where the accident
happened as the souvenir. You don't see the snow on the road in this picture
as it was about a mile away, and that was why they continued to drive to the
lake at this point.
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