Comcast Truck Causes Snow Crashes In Viral Video

These cars slid of an Indiana road this week on a snowy day in patt
because a Comcast truck was blocking one lane of traffic
surprisng motorists who had just crested a hill.  

There's a video that hit big today about some car slide-offs and crashes in Indiana this week that appear to be have been caused by a Comcast repair truck.

In the video, which you can see below, a Comcast truck is blocking one lane of traffic on a slushy, icy two lane road while the guys make repairs to some sort of cable problem along the road.

There's a upward grade on the road before the Comcast truck, and then it goes downhill just prior to where the Comcast truck is parked.

Motorists crest the hill, and are then surprised to see the Comcast truck blocking things. Some of the motorists either slide off the road because they can't brake in time, or they crash into each other.

The Comcast guys seem oblivious. The guy making the video points out that the Comcast guys are creating a hazard.

The Comcast guy replies that they put out the correct number of traffic cones warning of the danger. Which is likely true for optimum driving conditions, but not for the conditions in winter storms.

Sure, some of the motorists might have been driving too fast for the conditions, but must the Comcast  repair guys make things worse?

Why, yes, they must!

The guy shooting the video manages to put his own makeshift cones out, but it's not enough. We see a  pickup truck slide into the back of a braking car, then skid into not one, but two front lawns.

After that mishap, the guy taking the video yells at the Comcast worker.

Who basically shrugs. Comcast Guy says, "I have work to do."

To which our videographer responsds, "You got work to do. Is that cable more important than people's safety?

I actually feel for the Comcast workers, because they're between a rock and a hard place. It's corporate America, where workers must do what is proscribed in company rules, even if it makes no sense. If they don't, they're fired or punished.

They might have been able to park the trucks in a safer spot, but maybe that would have violated company rules?

But if the publicity gets bad, which it does here in this viral video, they're still in trouble.

As the video went viral, Ed Marchetti, SVP, Technical Operations put out a statement, which read in part:

"Safety matters most - especially in dangerous weather conditions like this. 

We are actively investigating what happened when our technicians were on site to restore services during an outage and we will reach out to those who were impacted buy this incident.

Within the next 24-48 hours, my team will meet with our technicians across the company to use this example of how important it is to make everyone's safety a priority in everything we do."

In other words, the employment of these Indiana Comcast workers is toast.

I'm glad that Comcast will emphasize safety, and I hope they follow through

I'm sure the people in that neighborhood were bummed that their cable access had been knocked out. I'm sure they wanted Comcast to fix the problem ASAP, as would I.

But I'd rather live without cable TV, and suffer through an afternoon unable go watch the Steve Harvey show, than see motorists get killed or injured because somebody is trying to enable me to watch the show.

Let's let common sense rule in winter weather, please.

Here's the video:

No Rest For The Weary: Major New U.S. Storm Due

A truck tipped over by a tornado in Florida
this week. More severe weather is likely across
the South early next week.  Photo by
Amy Beth Bennett, Florida Sun-Sentinel

In this stormy winter of 2016, it's one thing after the other in the Grand Ole' U.S. of A.

Now we have another big nasty storm to talk about. It'll come just a little more than a week after the epic Blizzard of 2016 on the East Coast.

This next storm will be quite different from that blizzard, but it's sure to cause plenty of trouble.

Tornadoes and severe weather look to be the biggest threat with this one.

As is always the case when you're talking about a storm that's still several days away, the details are murky and subject to change.

But we have the broad outlines, and it ain't pretty.

THE SET-UP

Flood alerts are already up along the northern California and southern Oregon coasts, and winter storm warnings are up in the Sierra Nevada mountains with this thing.

The storm will begin to really get going in the southern Rockies Sunday and Mondat,  then move through the Plains and then into the Great Lakes during the first half of next week. It's going to turn into a strong storm, with lots of wind and a big variety of hazards all the way from California to New England.

Following are some of the bigget threats from this thing

TORNADOES/SEVERE STORMS

It's a little unusual for NOAA's Storm Prediction Center to begin issuing advisories for severe weather four or five days down the road. At least during the winter, when the atmosphere is often at its least predictable.

But the SPC is saying that severe weather, including tornadoes is a pretty good bet along the Gulf Coast, lower Mississippi Valley, and southern Ohio Valley starting late Monday and continuing through Tuesday.

Forecast map for next Tuesday shows a strong
storm over the middle of the nation, which would
cause a wide variety of weather hazards.

They're actually more confident than usual about the threat of severe storms and tornadoes in the South.

The set up seems to indicate discreet supercells with possible tornadoes ahead of the storm's strong cold front, and a nasty, very gusty, damaging squall line just ahead of the cold front.

This at least has the potential to be another really ugly outbreak of dangerosu weather, so stay tned in that part of the country.

SNOW/BLIZZARD

Somewhere in the middle of the country, this powerful storm will likely set off quite a snowstorm with possible blizzard conditions.

The best bet now for this snowstorm would stretch from Colorado through the central Plains and on up toward Minnesota.

LOTS OF WIND:

Even places that don't get tornadoes, or severe thunderstorms, or a blizzard out of this storm, it's going to get pretty damned windy across much of the nation as the storm plunders on through. I expect we'll see high wind warnings and wind advisories for huge areas of the nation, especially in the Midwest, the Great Lakes region and in a good chunk of the Northeast

FLOODING:

There is a risk of flooding on the east side of the storm, as it will probably end up dropping at least one to three inches of rain, possibly locally more.

The biggest threat of flooding will probably be in the central Appalachians, as the storm will bring a surge of warm air along with the rain to rapidly melt the snow that accumulated in that blizzard a week ago.

TEMPERATURE GYRATIONS

The New England ski areas can't seem to catch a break this winter. There's been lots of thaws in that neck of the woods, and the biggest snowstorms seem to keep missing.

Since this powerful storm will travel west of New England, expect a surge of very warm air, possibly threatening record highs, by the middle of next week. The storm will also bring at least moderate rains, so this isn't great news for skiers and riders who want to enjoy the Presidents Day weekends in mid-February.

It will turn much colder after the storm goes by, so resorts will make snow. And once the cold air is established, there will be frequent chances of at least light snow, possibly even more than that, as we head into mid-February.