I was driving with a NB (she/they) and we were in the middle of winter back through the country side. In total the drive was about 8 hours and my driving partner was tired and a bit frustrated. For the most part I was trying to get us home. I was paying close attention to the road conditions making sure that the tires had good traction.

It just started snowing and as such I could tell that the road was neither wet nor was there any collection of snow such that I would have any issues with traction. However vision was reduced so I couldn't see very far ahead I'm not good giving estimates but maybe 2 -3 seconds ahead. I felt like I could see the road ahead and follow it without too much issues. The speed limit was 100 Km/hr but I slowed down to about 80 Km/hr.

As I was driving, out of no where (not really) a hard chunk of wood was in the road kind of like the trunk of a tree but only about maybe 1 m - 1.5 m wide. Honestly it seems maybe it fell of the back of a truck or something because the wind wasn't strong enough to push it there.

Long story short, I didn't have enough time to slow down after perceiving it nor was I going to try to swerve. So I slowed down and hit it, the cracked part of the radiator system somewhere, continuing driving the engine overheated but we were close to someone she knew and we made it home safe but very emotionally shaken up (her not me).

Given that I hit the tree, by definition, was I going too fast? Or do these things happen sometimes?