SEYMOUR – Approximately three weeks without rain caused several fender benders in the county. This particular accident happened on Old Knoxville Pike at a location that is famous for making believers out of drivers that roads are slick when wet.
The driver of this single vehicle accident received only minor injuries.
The roads get extremely slippery in the first few minutes of rain. This can happen anywhere after a long dry spell, but it is less likely in places where it rains all the time, like the Pacific Northwest. The cause is a film of oil that accumulates on the roadway and rises when the rain begins to fall. This creates a “Slip-N-Slide.” It takes about thirty minutes of steady rain to wash the road clean.
Vehicle control rests on four little rubber “contact pads” where the tires touch the pavement. If rainwater builds up between tire and road, the traction is broken. This is hydroplaning, and it results when the tread “channels” on the tire cannot conduct all the water from between your tire and the road, and the tire is forced to ride on top of the water that’s in between, like surfing.
One particular day, Sevier County Sheriff and the Seymour Volunteer Fire Department were summoned to this general vicinity on three separate occasions for this very reason.

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