One detail of Jean Hilliard’s story that sometimes gets lost in the dramatic narrative of the freezing and survival is the original cause of her predicament: the car in the ditch.

Jean was driving her father’s Ford LTD, a large American sedan of the type that was common on rural Minnesota roads in 1980.

The car hit ice, slid, and went off the road.

Jean was uninjured in the accident itself.

Cars in ditches on winter roads in rural Minnesota in 1980 were common events.

The roads were not always treated or sanded; the ice was unpredictable; and the large American sedans of the era, with their rear-wheel drive and their tendency toward understeer on slippery surfaces, were not ideally suited to winter driving conditions, whatever their other virtues.

Jean’s decision to get out of the car and walk was a reasonable response to the situation.