It's like people don't know how to drive ...

[budcrew08]

... during a storm. Every time you read about the bad storm, you always see these 30-car pileups. You don't see that here in the Northeast.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071223/ap_on_re_us/winter_storm

Why do other places like north Texas and Kansas and some places in the Midwest have these 25 and 30-car pileups on the interstate when the weather is ****ty?

 

[wickedwritah]

It happens in the Northeast, too, pretty frequently on I-80 in Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Usually happens around the Blue Mountain Tunnel on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, forcing a detour that tacks on 60 miles, at least, to your trip.

 

[Angola!]

the reason it happens in north texas is because of the bad freezing rain they get. and they can't drive here.

 

[kingcreole]

One of my coworkers slid off the interstate yesterday and hit the median. Said the road was fine until a small patch of snow/ice screwed him up. When you get blowing snow and drifts, that **** happens. Plenty of good road, but one small patch of bad road can really mess things up.

 

[Jake_Taylor]

If there are 30-car pileups in Kansas that's a sign the weather is incredibly bad. People there have seen winter storms before and can generally handle them. It's not like the Carolina's where the moment a flake hits the ground people start slamming into each other.

 

[JBHawkEye]

I've noticed during my recent road trips in winter storms that the biggest dumbasses on the road are either driving a.) SUVs or b.) semis. Yes, your big vehicles can plow through the snow. But you can't stop any better than we can in our cars.

We had a 15-car pileup on one of our area highways today. Had five inches of snow last night, combined with 40 mph winds today. It's a whiteout out in the rural areas right now.

 

[JR]

The worst is the first snowfall of the year when collective amnesia kicks in and people literally forget how to drive in snow. You have to slow down, leave more room between cars and know what's happening half a kilometer down the road.

There are two types of bad drivers in these storms; 1) those (and yes, mostly idiots driving SUV's) who think they can keep motoring along at 100 kmh AND tailgate and 2) those who figure that 30 kmh is safer than the 60 kmh that most everyone else is doing.

Those in#1 are the absolute worst.

 

[Tom Petty]

the reason it happens in north texas is because of the bad freezing rain they get. and they can't drive here.

one drop of freezing rain in texas always equals at least one fatality.

 

[Rosie]

Most of MN has been slammed with a storm today, and I had a three-hour drive on crummy roads today. The worst was some old fart driving about 25 mph in a 65 mph zone. It was safe to drive 50 at that point. GRRRR!

But I agree with JR. There is some sort of amnesia when it comes to driving in the first snow of the season.

 

[kingcreole]

I've noticed during my recent road trips in winter storms that the biggest dumbasses on the road are either driving a.) SUVs or b.) semis. Yes, your big vehicles can plow through the snow. But you can't stop any better than we can in our cars.

I think you nailed it JB. Driving down a snow-packed four-lane city street yesterday, I was driving a safe 20 mph. Some dumb mother****ing SUV whips around me like road conditions were perfect and was probably doing at least 35 to the stop light.

And the sad thing is, I was the one who got in an accident minutes later ... going 15 mph near a stop light, hit a patch of ice and I couldn't stop.

 

[JR]

Most of MN has been slammed with a storm today, and I had a three-hour drive on crummy roads today. The worst was some old fart driving about 25 mph in a 65 mph zone. It was safe to drive 50 at that point. GRRRR!

But I agree with JR. There is some sort of amnesia when it comes to driving in the first snow of the season.

The 30 cm of snow we had last Sunday (that's about a foot in funny measurements) has almost disappeared. Lots of rain and warm weather in the last week.

 

[JBHawkEye]

I've noticed during my recent road trips in winter storms that the biggest dumbasses on the road are either driving a.) SUVs or b.) semis. Yes, your big vehicles can plow through the snow. But you can't stop any better than we can in our cars.

I think you nailed it JB. Driving down a snow-packed four-lane city street yesterday, I was driving a safe 20 mph. Some dumb mother****ing SUV whips around me like road conditions were perfect and was probably doing at least 35 to the stop light.

And the sad thing is, I was the one who got in an accident minutes later ... going 15 mph near a stop light, hit a patch of ice and I couldn't stop.

Most of our city streets were pretty snow-packed today.

I'm at an intersection, light turns green, my car is slow getting going because of the snow. I look in the rear-view mirror and this ****stick in a Ford Explorer is waving his arms and bitching to his wife because I'm not going faster. I finally get up to speed, he's tailgating me until he decides to go around in the left lane. Gets around me, cuts back in front of me, and gets close to the next intersection, where the light is red. ****stick tries to stop, starts to slide, nearly slams into the back of a car that fortunately was turning right and pulled far enough ahead not to get hit.

I was hoping there would be a wreck, if only to be a witness to tell the cop that the ****stick was driving too fast for conditions.

 

[Sam Mills 51]

I've seen the same problems here. The fools running around and not slowing down for anything in large pickups and SUVs. Sure, they can plow through anything, but they haven't a prayer of stopping if anything happens.

 

[D-3 Fan]

I've noticed during my recent road trips in winter storms that the biggest dumbasses on the road are either driving a.) SUVs or b.) semis. Yes, your big vehicles can plow through the snow. But you can't stop any better than we can in our cars.

We had a 15-car pileup on one of our area highways today. Had five inches of snow last night, combined with 40 mph winds today. It's a whiteout out in the rural areas right now.

JB, thank you for saying exactly what most of us wanted to say about the dumbasses in SUV's and semis.

Just because you have a 4x4 and blow past everyone doesn't mean that you can stop your rig or SUV at the stop of a dime. Slow the hell down, Mario ****ing Andretti. You idiots are the main reasons why there are pileups and wipeouts on the highways. I was driving on one of the main drags in Moline and this pickup truck comes peeling off and blows right past me. Thank goodness the cops were out in droves to help, or in that case pull over, motorists.

I'm visiting family in the Quad Cities where I'm writing from right now. We've gotten about 3-5 inches, but the roads were cleared up by mid-morning and is now looking good. I wished I could say that about Cedar Rapids. The City of Five Seasons got eight inches, Anamosa reported with 10. It's going to be a tough task driving back to DSM on I-80.

Oh, add this as another thing I wish people would listen and take to heart: If the authorities tell you "travel is not reccommended" the translation of that is:

get off the ****ing highway. You have no business trying to drive in this mess, I don't care how good of a driver you are. I know it's Christmas and you're trying to get to your destination, but is it worth getting killed or wiping out rushing to see relatives so you can cram in a few extra days around Christmas?

They can wait and you can be patient and wait the storm out.

 

[jakewriter82]

... during a storm. Every time you read about the bad storm, you always see these 30-car pileups. You don't see that here in the Northeast.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071223/ap_on_re_us/winter_storm

Why do other places like north Texas and Kansas and some places in the Midwest have these 25 and 30-car pileups on the interstate when the weather is ****ty?

You never seen 30-car pileups due to the weather in the northwest. That is all.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

The reason there aren't more multi-car pileups in Northeastern snowstorms is simple. There are so many cars on the road, speeds in snow immediately descend to zero to 2 mph for all concerned.
See: The 5 hour drive I had to go 15 miles on Route 128 in a snowstorm two weeks ago.

 

[JR]

Oh, add this as another thing I wish people would listen and take to heart: If the authorities tell you "travel is not reccommended" the translation of that is:

get off the ****ing highway. You have no business trying to drive in this mess, I don't care how good of a driver you are. I know it's Christmas and you're trying to get to your destination, but is it worth getting killed or wiping out rushing to see relatives so you can cram in a few extra days around Christmas?

They can wait and you can be patient and wait the storm out.

When I was much younger I dated a girl in Double J country--which means it snows every day from November until early April. Legendary snowstorms.

Being 20 something and stupid and all I used to go up there no matter what the weather was like. Often I'd get "storm stayed" (a local expression) in a town and I'd wait until the snowplough showed up so I could follow him to the next town. Got caught in whiteouts that scared the everliving **** out of me.

And yes, "Travel is not recommended" DOES mean stay the **** off the roads.

 

[Smallpotatoes]

I'm more worried about main streets than highways in snowstorms and more to the point, after the storms. The streets are narrower and for some reason, people tend to be more aggressive when pulling out of side streets after snowstorms.

 

[slappy4428]

snowplough?

 

[Inky_Wretch]

I'd prefer every inch of snow that falls in Boston, Denver, Tahoe or Cleveland if meant avoiding the ice storms that hit down here.