A Subaru WRX driver who was traveling at excessive speed on a winter highway received a harsh lesson about the limits of all-wheel drive when the vehicle was struck by a snowplow operating on the road. The WRX’s all-wheel-drive system, which many drivers incorrectly believe provides immunity from winter road hazards, proved entirely insufficient protection against the physics of the collision with the vastly heavier plow. The WRX sustained catastrophic damage in the impact, and the driver’s survival is a testament more to fortune and modern vehicle safety engineering than to any meaningful protection provided by the vehicle’s traction system.
The persistent misconception that all-wheel drive makes winter driving significantly safer than conventional drive systems is one of the most dangerous myths in automotive culture. AWD improves a vehicle’s ability to get moving on slippery surfaces, but provides no meaningful advantage when braking or when dealing with a collision involving another vehicle or road hazard. Drivers of AWD vehicles who exceed safe winter speeds because they trust their traction system create additional risk for themselves and others by operating with the false confidence that a better-understood technology would not permit. This incident, unfortunately, provides an extreme illustration of that principle.