I’m not exaggerating. How can these people be so utterly stupid as to drive full freeway speed into an “open” middle lane when the two lanes on either side are at a standstill? 
Jesus. :smack:
Yes, you are exaggerating. The fastest looks like no more than 25mph when it comes into view, less at impact, little traction to brake so they are aiming for the gap. Maybe they were still driving poorly for the visibility and road conditions, who knows what conditions were like in the preceding miles, but that’s not remotely “full freeway speed”.
I watched the whole video. I’m not so sure they were driving full bore so much as steering for gaps because the brakes aren’t working.
They weren’t sliding until the last moment. [ETA: Unless you mean the white truck at the end.] Do you live in a snowy state? I live in northern Minnesota, and I’d like to think no one up here would do this, or very few. I did use to live in Missouri, though, and there’s enough snow down there so that people should know better.
It’s called FOG. It limits visibility. There are generally any number of accidents like this every year, sometimes involving over 100 vehicles, because people aren’t expecting traffic to come to a complete stop on a highway.
Pretty much the most important concept in driving is that you drive at a speed and with a gap that allows you to stop in time in case of a hazard on the road. If that means that you have to slow down because of bends, fog, snow, rain, congestion etc. then…slow the fuck down. Those people who crashed have absolutely no excuse and should be judged harshly. Those conditions are bad enough that constant vigilance should be expected and the question “can I stop in time for stationary traffic?” should be uppermost.
So they don’t deserve to lose their licence permanently but they should be charged and fined as the law dictates.
I was expecting one car doing what the OP describes. After watching the video, I’m amazed. :eek:
No doubt they weren’t expecting traffic to come to a complete stop, but that’s the problem; they should’ve been.
I’ve driven in those conditions enough times to know that’s exactly what can happen and drive accordingly. I doubt I drive at more than a quarter of the speed those cars were driving in fog and snow.
Glad to see the voices of reason have arrived!
Popping some flares before starting filming might have helped some…
I applaud the two semi drivers that managed to put it in the ditch instead of hitting the pile up. All in all, most where driving too fast for conditions. And someone may have been driving too SLOW for conditions, causing the pile up.
Pretty normal conditions for what I see in winter. I drive over the continental divide every day.
I’ve been in a pile up type accident before. This looks a little like what I experienced. Our car hit a patch of black ice and we lost control and skidded, then we watched as every other car that came up the road behind us hit the exact same patch of ice and went into the exact same skid, landing in the exact same place, hitting our car which was off the road in a ditch. This wasn’t really a classic chain reaction pile-up, as there were gaps of up to a full minute between cars but it was similar-ultimately 6 cars were involved
It’s hard to tell from the video, but it looks like the drivers may have lost control control of their cars before they entered the frame.
Or else the visibility was reduced and they didn’t see the pile-up until it was too late. Establishing fault in a pile-up is very difficult and sometimes none of the drivers are at fault (like it was determined in my real life patch of ice example)
One person did die. She was a passenger in the blue SUV that was sandwiched from what I heard.
Another winter-time meet-up of the summer and “all-season” tire clubs. :rolleyes:
Winter tires really ought to be mandatory in any jurisdiction that sees winter weather. It's official: Winter tires really do cut collisions
This.
::shuddering to think had they not had the presence of mind to do so::
I was the second to last car in a 63 car pile-up in NH. I would have missed the whole thing if the guy behind me was able to stop in time. They happen pretty quickly.
Agreed, they are mandatory in Germany and Austria from Nov-March and when we drive from the UK to go skiing we have to have them fitted. We were caught up in the big snowfalls this Christmas across Bavaria and Austria and they were absolutely invaluable.
Colorado is getting a clue with required tires for cars and commercial vehicles must chain up.
My Wife and I run snow tires year round on our 4x4’s (Bridgestone Blizzaks are the best we have found with Nokian Hakkapeliitta running a close second). Winter lasts so long, there is no point in changing them out. We get new ones every two years or about 30 thousand miles.
We get a lot of snow. I spent 4 hours today on my tractor and in my plow truck just cleaning up the driveway.
I think the OP is misjudging what happens when you hit an area with no traction when driving at highway speeds, and the drivers in question were surely surprised at their inability to stop as well.
I’ve had two slow speed collisions in the last 15 years here in Connecticut. In both cases, my vehicle hit an area with no traction, and despite all my efforts, I just glided on and on, until I hit something (a mailbox the first time, and a guard rail the second time).
The collision into the guard rail was more recent, and I remember just sliding and sliding. By the end, I was going so slowly that I was almost tempted to get out of the vehicle to try and stop it. (I didn’t, of course.) Nevertheless, I still slid completely across an instersection (thankfully there was no cross traffic) and into a guard rail, striking it at 5-10 mph. The collision took out a turn signal and headlight, and caused about $900 in damage to my vehicle.
This collision was at the end of an exit ramp where I was initially only going about 20 mph or so. Had I encountered similar conditions (snow on top of ice) at highway speeds, it would have been a lot worse.
Let me just go stick this flare back here…ahhhhhhhhhhhcrunchgabblesmuchglurb