Your Yearly (Scary) Reminder Not To Be An Idiot On Snowy Highways

Aftermath of that big highway pileup in Iowa Monday. Photo
via the Des Moines Register

We get these videos every winter. A snowy and icy Interstate highway.  A minor accident ahead causes people to brake.

But some people are distracting. Others, who have four wheel drive, think that allows them to stop on a dime.  Still others are panicking, and stopping right in the path of the cars and trucks behind them.

The inevitable big pileup then happens.

Such was the case yesterday, as you can see in the video at the bottom of this post from television station KCCI.  Interstate 80 was snow covered and slick.  A minor accident happened. Then, boom! Everybody piles into each other.

The Des Moines Register reports that luckily, only one person suffered serious injuries in the 50-vehicle pileup near Altoona, Iowa, which is east of Des Moines.

One side note:  Why do big tractor trailers go so fast in the snow?  I've regularly been nearly forced off the road by truckers blasting by me at top speeds on Interstate 89 in Vermont during icy snowstorms.

My cynical side says they stir up so much blowing snow that they know they won't be caught if they cause a crash. Who cares if somebody dies?  They have a schedule to make!  It might not be precisely the truck drivers' fault.

Most of them probably do care if they kill someone in a icy highway crash. But the trucking companies put pressure on the drivers to adhere to schedules, no matter what. It's some of the trucking companies, who believe the bottom line is much more important than peoples' lives. That's not all the trucking firms, but some of them.

Notice how many tractor trailers were involved in the crash you see in the video below.  This wasn't the fault of all of 'em, but perhaps some of them.

It's certainly not just the truck drivers.  A lot of people ignore this, but you need to greatly increase the distance between you and the car in front of you in case you have to hit the brakes. Granted, this is hard to do, because when I try this, somebody inevitably passes me and then cuts in front of my truck just inches from my headlights. But you have to try, I guess.

This should be obvious, but slow the hell down!  And no, your four wheel drive vehicle will NOT enable you to stop in a shorter distance without skidding.  Four wheel drive is good for traction, but it does not give you a license to speed.

It seems like most people don't understand this. I drive a four-wheel drive pickup truck, and I certainly get the evil eye from speed demon pickup drivers because I'm driving so "slowly" on the ice.

What should you do if you're caught up in a pileup?  Accuweather says at least initially, you should stay in your car, even as more collisions are happening around you.  At least your car, or the remains of it, provide some structure to protect you for oncoming cars and trucks. That's better than getting run over or smooshed when you're getting out of your car.

Accuweather says once things calm down a bit, you can get out, but then stand behind a guardrail or tree.  If you're not hurt call 911 and see if anybody else needs help.

It was warm in Vermont this morning, but a cold front is on our doorstep. That means temperatures will rapidly fall this afternoon and evening. Icy patches will develop on the roads. Will you be the cause of the next pileup when this happens? Don't be that person.

Here's footage of the Iowa pileup on Monday:

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.

Watch Morons Cause Horrible Accident On Wisconsin Highway

A Wisconsin DOT surveillance camera caught the drama of a major pileup on a snowy highway recently.

One of the Wisconsin crashes caused by
speeders in the snow, Photo by Eric Aspenson
Milwaukee Journal Sentinal.  

As you can see, it's the idiots who decide that driving really fast on snow and ice is the way to go are the cause of the havoc.

They either spin out, hit disabled vehicles, or worst of all, slam into the backs of cars whose drivers have already slowed down, because it dawned on them that flooring it during a winter storm isn't the way to go.

On Sunday, several nasty crashes in Wisconsin and elsewhere in the United States occured on snowy, icy highways. Mostly caused by people in a hurry.

I hope there is some way to ticket and fine the idiots who were speeding on this highway and almost killed a whole bunch of people.  And I would love to hear their excuses as to why they thought they could go so fast.

"Oh, ice is slippery?"
"It's the DOT's fault for allowing snow to fall on the highway"
"I have the right to go as fast as I want?."
"So what if I caused carnage on the highway. That's why there's insurance."

Here's the video, which is instructional on how idiots ruin the rest of our lives during snowstorms. Especially watch the fast cars moving in to the pileup. Ugh.