Rule 1 Broken.(Column)

Byline: Cory Farley

Farley's First Rule of Driving, which hasn't caught on as rapidly as I'd hoped, is that there's no such thing as an accident. Every crash stems from a mistake by somebody.

You can't control the other car, but you can handle yourself. For four decades, I've stayed on pace to meet my lifetime goal of not being the guy who made the mistake.

Until last week.

It was a minor event, not even a bent fender. But no one was involved except me, and that doesn't fit into my General Theory of Motoring.

The occasion was a blizzard on Donner Pass, where I-80 crosses the Sierra Nevada. The California Department of Transportation is notoriously quick to require tire chains, but this time it was warranted. We clattered along at 15 mph in a file of cars that stretched for miles.

That's tedious but not normally a problem. We'd just topped the summit, at 7200 feet, when shifting winds picked up a snowdrift the size of Maine. Instantly, we were at center stage in God's own whiteout. Forget the road-I couldn't see the washer nozzles six inches from the windshield.