A man went viral for posting a Facebook Reel of a car stuck in a large frozen puddle. 

This week @BrooklynBitess posted a video of the incident, which has amassed over 1.8 million views as of Saturday.

“How does this guy come out of this spot?” says the man behind the camera.

Wait… How Did This Happen?

”I’ve never seen that before,” he shares. “Snow is one thing, but he’s literally in a pond!”

The incident appears to have occurred during the powerful winter storm that swept across the New York metropolitan area in late January, bringing one of the most significant snow and ice events the region has seen in years. The National Weather Service issued Winter Storm Warnings as the system dropped heavy snowfall, with some areas of the Tri-State recording up to a foot or more.

It appears that during the storm, the car was in the middle of a puddle, most likely caused by a burst pipe, when it froze around the tires and undercarriage. It is a relatively common winter phenomenon for surface water to freeze first when exposed, but when that water is under a vehicle or confined in a low spot, it can freeze into thicker, stronger ice that offers almost no traction for tires.

How Can Car Owners Remove Their Car From a Frozen Puddle?

Overwhelmingly, viewers were shocked by the severity of the incident, where the frozen puddle is closer in appearance to ice than snow, nearly reaching halfway up the rite. 

Some viewers chimed in with advice on how one would solve this issue. “And the ice under the car will take forever to melt,” wrote one comment. “It will be sitting on a pedestal days after the rest melts.”

“Wait until it’s above freezing temps and start dumping boiling water on it… when it loosens, use a metal shovel to break up the big chunks,” added another. 

Some commenters shared their own similar experience. “I had that happen to me 3 weeks ago,” wrote one individual. “It was way less ice than this guy but the weather had been warm enough to make snow melt and i ended with my 4 wheels in ice tracks once it froze. It took 3 people to get myself out of there!”

Solving this kind of predicament is about restoring traction and removing the ice. Many experts have shared that the first step is to clear as much ice and snow from around the tires and under the car as possible. This can be done by digging with a shovel or even an ice scraper to expose firm ground.  

Then, friction is needed under the drive wheels, either by laying down sand, kitty litter, gravel, or floor mats. These rough materials give the tires something to bite into so they stop spinning uselessly on slick ice. Another trick is to gently rock the vehicle back and forth by shifting between drive and reverse at low speed to build a tiny bit of momentum and help break the bond between tire and ice.

More drastic methods include spreading rock salt or ice melt to chemically lower the melting point and break up the ice bond, but these take time and can be hard on your car and the environment if overused. That said, in cases where the ice is too thick and the car still won’t budge, calling roadside assistance may be the safest option, especially if digging and traction aids exhaust your patience.

MotorBiscuit reached out to @BrooklynBitess for comment via Facebook Messenger.