Aren't drivers supposed to drive really slow or even stop with those conditions. Many cars in those video were going quite fast.
driving way too fast for conditions, I saw a couple people slow down and pull over. There is no reason to be rocking 40 mph in conditions like that.
Yeah it's the people who have driven in plenty of snow before so they think that they are invincible and don't need to slow down. Happens all the time. This one idiot passed me on the highway going at least 80 mph when there was 4 inches of snow on the road. Needless to say it spun off the road. He was fine, but it hopefully taught him a lesson.
Maybe drivers ed should include some time on the skidpan. People just don't seem to get it. Loss of traction isn't easy to recover from and best avoided...
The worst people are the ones with AWD or 4WD. They think they are invincible with their superior traction, then realize too late that AWD doesn't help them stop.
Mum did that. "4wd will make my car so much better in the snow". Cue her spinning out of control twice before even getting off the farm property, giving up and walking home again...
Most people are pretty good about driving in snow, at least here. But of course you'll always have idiots.
I'm in Alabama. If we get 1/2 inch of snow everyone either doesn't drive or goes 20mph. I doubt I will have a problem. There are some massive hills though, I doubt I could get over them in my car. I'm honestly surprised so few people were hurt, and only 1 died. Extremely sad, but also surprisingly fortunate.
I start to wonder something, a sheet of aluminium or expecially just a plastic board is really light and cheap -- a sign large enough to be read would sit pretty easily on the underside of your car at the back, just under the rear bumper possibly attached to the petrol tank. Especially if they're made with a hinge in the middle. I wonder how much of this could be prevented if cars by standard had equipped underneith them a sign that said "accident ahead" in big, bold black letters. If you have a crash and if you want to help save lives... it's already risky 'going in' and pulling people out of vehicles. Would it not be better if everyone has some form of warning attached to their vehicle in some way? think how many 100 car pileups would be 10 car pileups if only there was a good warning to slow down? If you sit in the shoulder with hazards it resembles a breakdown, but "Accident ahead" and drivers who aren't tits are going to be like "Oh fuck". A lot of people have those shitty little triangles in their boot for this sorta thing... doesn't help in these conditions.
I plan to keep flares in my car. Set them up at 20, 50, and 100ft is regulation I think. I'm sure you could put them wherever you want though if it's getting people to avoid stuff like this.. Set a few up in the middle of the road 1000, 500, 200, 100, 20ft ahead and people will stop.
My thoughts exactly. Snow means Slow, and it seems a lot of the people involved were driving way too fast for the low visibility conditions.
Yeah, I agree with a lot of you guys (and gals, if applicable). I really think drivers, especially like me who's lived in Michigan their whole lives, should understand that when you're in white-out conditions the first thing you SHOULD do is slow down! But, some people in big trucks and even SUV's think they're invincible. At any rate, the accident is over and done with and a little update: Total vehicles involved in pileup: 191 Semi-trucks involved: 52 Estimated damage costs: 1.8M $ (roughly) Total deaths: 1 Total injured: 23 Cleanup time: 2 days, 8 hours I-94 has been down for: 2 days and 14 hours I-94 interstate between the mile markers in main post are re-opened and traffic is flowing smoothly!
I saw a comment on this video on youtube which actually explained conditions like this very well. "Situations like this are just kinda difficult. If you slow down, you get rear ended, if you speed up, you hit someone, so you just follow the flow of traffic. Sometimes it works out fine, but sometimes it doesn't." But that semi that slammed into the pile was going way too fast. He didn't have the balls to put himself in the ditch either, like that other semi did. Then again, he probably just jammed on the brakes, locked up all his wheels and rendered steering useless.
