Richard Lines
pfm Member
Good morning all,
Apparently the "super fog" caused people to drive too fast????
Regards
Richard
Apparently the "super fog" caused people to drive too fast????
Regards
Richard
"Super fog" pile up in the US
- Thread starter Richard Lines
- Start date
pawnshop92
pfm Member
There was something similar years ago in SW Ontario. There were several deaths because of it and a chilling call of someone who got caught up in the pile up in a fire yelling 'I'm only 16'. I had not long qualified in nursing and can remember having to comfort someone who lost their partner in another accident along that stretch of highway.
* 'only 14'
en.wikipedia.org
* 'only 14'
1999 Ontario Highway 401 crash - Wikipedia
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Sue Pertwee-Tyr
Accuphase all the way down
I guess if the fog is very dense, very quickly and unexpectedly, then almost everybody will be going too fast. The rest is pretty much inevitable. Even if the first drivers don't panic, and slow down carefully, sooner or later somebody is going to slam on...
Reading the Ontario case, it was a truck driver braking that caused a following truck to brake sharply, jack-knife and block the road. You would expect truck drivers to be generally safer than the average drive-to-work-and-back motorist, so the conditions must have very definitely caught them by surprise.
Sue Pertwee-Tyr
Accuphase all the way down
Yes, according to that Wiki page, the fog went down to about 1m visibility pretty much instantaneously. Not knowing what lies immediately ahead, the natural reaction would be to brake. I don't think you can mitigate against that sort of risk, other than by having a strict low speed limit when fog is forecast, and even then, there will always be muppets.
MJS
Technical Tinkerer
I narrowly missed about 3 of these in South Africa back in June on the N12 east of Jo'burg. I'd never considered what the cloud symbol and 50kph signs were on the motorway as I'd never been in Winter before, but the highveld is, well, high. Suddenly there was a wall of zero visibility, and cars, trucks, and hopper wagons strewn everywhere. So we did what the rest of the traffic did, i.e. cross the reservation and drive into oncoming traffic with the hazards on. It's the South African way, apparently. There was another one about 3km down the road, we turned off and found the side roads just as congested and in turmoil. Then, 3km later it was clear as day and we're heading to the N4. Very scary at the time. A lot of people were at the side of the road waiting it out, which to be fair, we probably should have done.
Minio
Kind of Sort of Not really...
Driving on freeways can be pretty hairy when the weather comes in.
If you are on a by-road there are usually places to pull off, like a churchyard, in Virginia, from personal experience, in torrential rain.
But on a Dallas freeway once, in heavy fast moving traffic, in an extremely fierce downpour seriously impeding visibility, there was no escape.
Just a keep going and prey situation.
Stopping not a safe option.
If you are on a by-road there are usually places to pull off, like a churchyard, in Virginia, from personal experience, in torrential rain.
But on a Dallas freeway once, in heavy fast moving traffic, in an extremely fierce downpour seriously impeding visibility, there was no escape.
Just a keep going and prey situation.
Stopping not a safe option.
sean99
pfm Member
I have only driven on Texas freeways once - from Houston to Beaumont - and I also found that, during heavy downpours along the way, most drivers did not slow down from 70mph. I drove at around 50mph in the slow lane - gripping the steering wheel.
I guess, being all "Christians" down there, they don't mind arriving in heaven a little earlier than planned.
I guess, being all "Christians" down there, they don't mind arriving in heaven a little earlier than planned.
Mike Reed
pfm Member
Same as here? I've no idea of national U.S.A. speed limits or whether they differ state to state, but thought limits were marginally lower over there. Maybe you're right about the Christian ethic, or maybe, being Texans, they think they can simply shoot their way out of a crisis.
Craig B
Re:trophile
I used to drive that Windsor, Ontario corridor occasionally for work. The reason the fog comes in so fast and thick is because there is a Great Lake (Erie) on the south side and Lake St. Clair even closer to the north of what is effectively a relatively narrow peninsula (the St. Clair River is also quite massive). It is exactly like being at sea when the pea soup comes in, you can't even see the lines on the road.
In other news, the increasingly moronic Ontario government has recently permanently increased the speed limit from 100kph to 110kph on six stretches of 400 series highways, these include (emphasis mine):
In other news, the increasingly moronic Ontario government has recently permanently increased the speed limit from 100kph to 110kph on six stretches of 400 series highways, these include (emphasis mine):
- Queen Elizabeth Way – from Hamilton to St. Catharines
- Highway 401 – from Windsor to Tilbury
- Highway 402 – from London to Sarnia
- Highway 404 – Newmarket to Woodbine
- Highway 417 – from Ottawa to the Quebec border
- Highway 417 – Kanata to Arnpior
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awkwardbydesign
Officially Awesome
Am I the only one who read this as “Super frog pile-up” and was then disappointed to see it was actually about weather...?
@sean99 I used to work with a couple of Texans, and one of my co-workers was genuinely scared off using the 85 MPH stretch of TX-130 that runs from San Antonio to Austin: I told her that 85 MPH was fast, but at 135 km/h, it wasn’t far off the normal limit in continental Europe, and she said: “yeah, but this is Texas: over here everyone figures they should be doing 10 MPH over what’s on the sign, and quarter of them are drunk, and they’re all driving big ol’ trucks that take a quarter mile to stop”.
@sean99 I used to work with a couple of Texans, and one of my co-workers was genuinely scared off using the 85 MPH stretch of TX-130 that runs from San Antonio to Austin: I told her that 85 MPH was fast, but at 135 km/h, it wasn’t far off the normal limit in continental Europe, and she said: “yeah, but this is Texas: over here everyone figures they should be doing 10 MPH over what’s on the sign, and quarter of them are drunk, and they’re all driving big ol’ trucks that take a quarter mile to stop”.
sean99
pfm Member
Fatality Facts 2021: State by state
A summary of fatality statistics about state by state compiled by IIHS from 2021 Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) data.
www.iihs.org
Look at South Carolina
. Note to self to not take a road trip through South Carolina.We got caught in a sudden sandstorm on the freeway between San Diego and Phoenix, visibility went from clear to near zero in seconds. Ones natural instinct is to slam on the brakes but the worry is that someone will pile into the back of you, very scary, luckily the sandstorm disappeared as quickly as it came. If there had been a stopped vehicle in front of us as the sandstorm hit we likely would not hav been here today.