Snowy, Fatal Missouri Highway Pileup Illustrates Danger Of Speeding In Snow

Part of a fatal pileup Friday on Interstate 70 in Missouri. Big part of the
problem was people driving too fast for the conditions

This is really a pet peeve every time we get winter weather.

Why, oh why do people insist on driving as fast as possible when the road is icy or snowy? Why do people who've lived through dozens of winters not understand that ice is slippery?

As a result, there was another awful, tragic highway pileup in a snowstorm. This time in Missouri.

It was cold and snowing along Interstate 70 near Oak Grove, Missouri Friday when 47 cars and trucks piled up on the icy highway. Graphic video from a truck driver caught in the wreck showed vehicle after vehicle bashing into the already wrecked cars.

Sadly, one person died in this crash and several others were hurt.

In the video at the bottom of the post, you can see cars driving too fast for the conditions slamming into each other.

The truck driver who shot video of the crash can be seen trying to seek help for a person in a badly crushed car. I believe the person in that car is the one who passed away. If only the speed demons on highways during winter storms could understand the pain they are causing maybe they would slow down.

Or maybe they don't care.

True, visibility was poor and the weather was too cold for salt to work effectively on the highway, which is all the more reason why people should have been driving more slowly, or if possible, not at all.

It's certainly possible the chain reaction crash started when somebody who was driving slowly enough for the conditions still lost control and hit a guardrail or something. This can happen to the best drivers. But the carnage was certainly compounded by speeding motorists, as is the case in most if not all of these pileups.

This wasn't the only crash in Missouri in what was really not the biggest winter storm ever. Only three to six inches of snow fell. But during the day the Missouri State Highway Patrol said there were no fewer than 125 crashes with 19 injuries and that one death in the Interstate 70 pileup, says the Weather Channel. 

Please, when driving in the winter, remember this cliche or adage or whatever you want to call it: "It's better to drive slowly and wish you were going faster than to be driving fast and wish you were going more slowly.

Here's the video. Again, a warning: It's quite graphic, especially after the truck driver gets out of his rig. But I hope the video scares people into taking it easy on the highways during winter.