This letter is in response to the 12/4 letter entitled “Champaign Should Take Preventative Measures.” I recently lived in South Dakota for two years before moving back to the Champaign area, and I would like to point out that there was never any salt on city streets while I was there. As you can imagine, the streets were fairly snow-packed during the whole of the winter, to the point where you could find snowmobiles driving down them. The number of accidents however didn’t even compare to what we had just last week when there was the first snow of the season. The moral of this story is that the problem is not snow and ice on the road, that can be found in many towns, most with more snow than CU. The problem is that drivers fail to take weather into account when they are driving on streets. Slowing down is part of the equation, but not everything. You need to know how to control your car and it needs to be in good shape. If you hit a patch of ice going the speed limit in campus (for anyone who’s forgotten, it’s 25 mph) and your car is in good repair (tires, breaks, etc.) you should not lose control, much less get into an accident. When approaching an intersection, breaking should occur at least a block in advance. If you don’t have anti-lock breaks make sure you know how to pump your breaks to stop without locking them up. If you can’t drive in snow, ride with a friend or take the MTD. Drivers need to take some responsibility on themselves when it comes to winter driving.