Our Subaru Forester was sliding sideways down Interstate 80 at fifty miles per hour. My wife, Nan, had gingerly switched to the left-hand lane to avoid a truck that was overturned on the right shoulder, but no amount of experience, skill, or caution could overcome our car’s mass and momentum on a nearly frictionless surface. In an instant, we’d lost traction on the icy highway and were headed toward the wide median between the east- and westbound traffic.

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