I realize many drivers think the law doesn’t apply to them. But why in the name of Isaac Newton don’t they believe the laws of physics apply, either?

Specifically, I’m talking about drivers of SUVs, the much-maligned, 4×4 boxes that serve as both modern station wagon and hippest ride on the road.

News flash, four-wheelers: Highways turn to skating rinks at 32 degrees.

Four-wheel-drive is not an invincible force field. It’s not a mechanical miracle that subverts the laws of motion. On slick roads, four-wheel-drive just means all four wheels are sliding.

The day after Christmas found my husband and me driving from New York’s JFK airport to Virginia Beach, Va. Upon alighting from an 18-hour plane ride, we learned that our connecting flight had been canceled. And we were competing for stand-by space with already bumped passengers from two days before. So in the world’s chintziest rented Ford Taurus, we headed south down the New Jersey Turnpike.

Weather forecasters indicated a smattering of snow would hit the mid-Atlantic that afternoon when, God willing, we’d be near the Old Dominion.

But Mother Nature had other plans. Southern Delaware blasted us with thick flurries and ice that already carpeted the cold roads. Feeling the car slip a tad, I slowed to a crawl with other prudent motorists intent on getting home, just not getting there quickly.

As those of us in the right lane tortoised along at 20 mph, we were alternately sprayed and shaken by the hares: Ford Expeditions with child seats, Chevy Suburbans with bike racks, Cadillac Escalades with chrome wheels and other assorted small tanks clocking 50 mph.

Then came the accidents.

Every vehicle — save one — that had skidded off the road, done a header into a bank, nose-dived into the median or hurtled into the trees was an SUV. The other driver who fancied himself Richard Freakin’ Petty piloted a Camaro.

And yes, I admit it: I laughed.

I’m not some SUV-hating, tree-hugging enviro-fascist. I learned to drive on a four-wheel-drive. But I know this: SUVs aren’t kryptonite to snow. They also aren’t magical aquacars that can ford 3 feet of water at 40 mph.

At the first snowflake, otherwise overprotective suburban moms, whose SUVs have never left the city limits, will chuck the kids in the back, shift into high four and race past all those cautious, front-wheel-drive schlubs.

What they fail to realize is that, while four-wheel-drives make the gettin’ goin’ easy, it’s the gettin’ stopped that’s tricky. Jam on your brakes doing 45 mph on slick roads, and that Suburban is nothing more than a very large sled.

For the sake of the rest of us, please take note: If you can’t recall the rules for driving on dicey roads, you may want to remember a more basic law: Bodies in motion tend to stay in motion.