I almost got involved in something like this driving from Detroit to NH...an ice storm passed over me as I stayed overnight with a friend in MI. The roads were pretty darned slick as I drove into Canada, but manageable.
Fast forward to upstate NY later in the day and I was catching back up to the storm. Things got worse and worse on 90 until there was a long line of cars in the somewhat clear right lane and very few people in a pretty brutal left lane. The right lane kept going slower and slower until I just couldn't take it anymore and moved over to try to navigate the treacherous left at maybe 15-25mph. Not two minutes passed after that when I saw the brakelights start twinkling on way ahead to the right and making their way back to me...not long after the too closely packed cars started hitting each other, bump bump bump bump bump.
Kind of weird that my impatience to drive faster saved me and I realized how lucky I was and got off at the next exit with hotels, Utica NY. Stayed warm and dry in the Red Roof Inn while chowing down on BK and watching TV to pass the time.
Speaking of people in big AWD SUVs being too confident, I remember driving to the local dump after a big storm and being treated to the sight of a wildly out of control Explorer heading towards me at about 50mph. The guy hit a rough patch of road and his ride started pitching wildly from front to back, the he somehow came to a stop about a foot from a tree on the shoulder...I slowed down to see if he was OK, and he jumped out with this look of incredible disbelief on his face. Not fear, not joy, just disbelief that he couldn't drive his Explorer as fast as he wanted in horrible conditions. Also makes me think of my wife's story of being passed in a no passing zone by a nut in a 4x4 pickup during a monster storm only to have the guy wipe out when he tried to get back into their lane. She slowed down to roll her window down and wave at him, claimed she would have stopped to help him if he looked incapacitated but he was well enough to flip her off.