VANCOUVER, Wash. — A recent winter storm brought treacherous driving conditions to the region, leaving many motorists struggling to navigate icy roads. Among those was Nick Abernathie, whose harrowing experience on Interstate 5 was captured in a viral video.
Abernathie, a Longview resident originally from Alaska, was en route to see his mother in the hospital on Thursday when chaos struck. He was driving northbound on I-5 near the Highway 99 exit in Vancouver when he lost control.
KGW cameras captured Abernathie’s truck sliding sideways on the snow-covered freeway as he attempted to regain control. The video, posted to KGW’s YouTube page, quickly gained traction, accumulating over 300,000 views by Friday afternoon.
The highway became a gridlock of stalled and stranded vehicles. Abernathie recalled the incident: “By 11 a.m., I was completely sideways on the highway and stuck.”
Abernathie, who has experience driving in snow but is more familiar with front-wheel drive, was driving his rear-wheel drive 2004 Chevy Silverado 1500 SS. He described the moment he lost control: “My rear end — because it’s rear-wheel drive and really light in the back — just started slowly going sideways and I’m looking around and there’s a big bus passing me (and) there’s a semi on the other side and I’m like ‘Oh my gosh.’”
Despite his attempts to stop, the icy conditions made it impossible. “Even if I was at a dead stop or with my brakes on, it was just sliding and sliding,” he said.
Faced with the impending chaos, Abernathie had to act quickly. “Because there was so much going on, if I didn’t correct my wheel all the way over to the left and hit the gas really hard, I was going to hit somebody, somebody was going to hit me, or I was going to get stuck and stranded.” he explained.
Although he said it was very scary, Abernathie managed to maintain a calm demeanor during the ordeal. While he struggled to steer his truck, other drivers grew impatient.
“I couldn’t get out of my truck. I couldn’t go into the ditch, and I couldn’t go left. The only thing I could do was go straight sideways,” he stated. “I didn’t want to hurt anyone; I didn’t want to damage my truck. I didn’t want to get hurt.”
Abernathie credited a patch of compacted snow on the left side of the freeway, stating those conditions helped him to regain traction. He addresses the criticisms he has received online: “No matter what people are saying online, I did the right thing, and I didn’t hit anyone. I didn’t get stuck and I made it home safely and that’s the most important thing.” To those who questioned his actions, Abernathie responded, “People saying I should’ve gotten out of the way — I couldn’t move. The only thing I could do was control my truck to go straight.”
Abernathie expressed surprise at the severity of the storm. “I’ve only lived here three years. I didn’t even know the weather got like this here,” said Abernathie, who was shocked to see the video of his struggle circulating.
