but it was pure dumb luck. About a block from the police station, going down a hill, about 15 mph because I had just hit one ice patch, there's a van stopped way ahead about halfway down. I start to slow down. ABS kicks in, no traction at all, I mean I'm not slowing in the slightest. I realize that I'm gonna hit him. Let off the brakes, steer around him, somebody turns in at the intersection at the bottom of the hill, lots of traffic on the cross street, I steer back into my lane and get back on the brakes, still nothing, I start to go sideways and end up jumping the curb into somebody's yard--at that point I got some traction and stopped. Heaved a sigh of relief--if I'd gotten into the cross-traffic it would have been _bad_. Wonder of wonders I didn't hit any cars, kids, poles, mailboxes, hydrants, or anything else that I could identify. And at some point in that trajectory I was aimed at all of them.
Dunno why the street hadn't been sanded but . . .