Skid Marks

Title

Skid Marks

Artist

Connie Fox

Medium

Photograph - Outdoor Color Photo

Description

In this highway scene in rural Texas, I intended to capture the rolling hills and an overview of the countryside. Instead, as often happens, I found I had captured something more, which my eye had not seen in that moment: a story that appears not to have ended well. A story told by skid marks on the road and veering to the right, maybe into this fenced pasture.

Note the double yellow line down the center. If it’s solid on the driver’s side, that means “no passing.” Some drivers get impatient and pass anyway. Whatever happened here, these skid marks tell us that a driver took action, applied the brakes, and landed where he had not intended to go. Processing this image left me with a deep sadness.

Skid marks caused by tires on roads occur when a vehicle wheel stops rolling and slides or spins on the surface of the road. Skid marks can be analyzed to find the maximum and minimum vehicle speed prior to an impact or incident. Different road surfaces produce different kinds of skid marks, sometimes also referred to as scuff marks or tire marks.

On asphalt road surfaces such as this, skid marks are usually the result of bituminous oils in the asphalt that are heated because of the friction of braking or accelerating and rise to the surface, leaving dark marks. This kind of mark on asphalt can last for months or even a year or two if they are particularly dark and the roadway is not well traveled.

It is my hope that this image will remind everyone who sees it to be vigilant, and perhaps save a life.

Canon PowerShot G7X Mark II
Copyright 2022 Connie Steitz Fox
All rights reserved
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Minimal sky; no people.

FEATURED ON THE HOMEPAGES OF THESE GROUPS: Seen But Not Noticed, January 2022.

Uploaded

January 30th, 2022

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