114 Vehicle Pileup In Virginia

NFS4

No Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
72,636
48
91
Holy sh!t!!!!

And my family and I are driving to Baltimore, MD tomorrow from NC and we have to take I-95
 

iamwiz82

Lifer
Jan 10, 2001
30,772
13
81
i dont get it. 2" is nothing. It shoudl be common sense: if the road is white and 2" higher than normal, SLOW DOWN!!! argh, when will people learn??
 

Viper22

Golden Member
Oct 9, 1999
1,607
0
76
NFS4 have a nice ride getting here tommarrow. We are supposed to get around 6" of snow today total. just drive carefully man.

Viper22
 

sharkeeper

Lifer
Jan 13, 2001
10,886
2
0
NFS4: What time?

The road conditions will improve dramatically in the next 18 hours. Friday should be mostly sunny with highs in the 40's.

Cheers!
 

vi edit

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Oct 28, 1999
62,484
8,345
126
I'm glad it's just not an Iowa thing. I swear people loose 10 IQ points for every inch of snowfall that hits the ground.

Won't these morons ever learn that it's not how fast you can drive, but how fast you can stop???

ARRRRGGGGG!
 

divinemartyr

Platinum Member
Oct 18, 2000
2,439
1
71


<< i dont get it. 2&quot; is nothing. It shoudl be common sense: if the road is white and 2&quot; higher than normal, SLOW DOWN!!! argh, when will people learn?? >>



It only takes one person to mess everything up for 113 other cars. More than likely this was the mistake of one person, although that might not be the case, depends on how thick traffic was.

Either way, people will never learn that you need 4-12 times as much distance to stop on snow/ice and consequently, you must drive slow enough to allow yourself to do so. I can't say I've never gotten into an accident on ice, as I did once, but it was black ice that you couldn't see. Every other road had already melted and things were clear. Black ice is suck.

dm
 

iamwiz82

Lifer
Jan 10, 2001
30,772
13
81
well, i am from mi, so maybe i have an andvantage of knowing that snow is slippery, but still. 1 car does not cause 113. its 1 car crashing, another behind it, tailgating, hitting that one, etc. People have to understand that roads are going to be slippery for awhile especially after snow. It should be common sense. walking on snow can be dangerous enough, now imagine if you weight 3000lbs and were going 990. Thats enough force to send you slidding for a long time.
 

AndrewR

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
11,157
0
0
From the sounds of it, it wasn't just the presence of the snow but the inability to see. I suspect that this was similar to the massive fog-caused accidents that happen occasionally and was further compounded by the increased stopping distance from the snow and ice.
 

Azraele

Elite Member
Nov 5, 2000
16,524
29
91
Woah! I just got in from sledding and saw the news. So many people were hurt, this is sad news :(
 

SUOrangeman

Diamond Member
Oct 12, 1999
8,361
0
0
Being a Virginian, I think my one year of driving experience in Syracuse exempts me from the following statements: ;)

I must admit that some folks here in VA can not and should not drive in the snow. Now, I got roughly 3 inches here in Reston. I'm guessing it was no more than 5 inches or so at the site of the pileup ... certainly not enough to paralyze folks who handle snow on a regular basis (Syracuse, Chicago, Detroit, etc.). Sure, visibility (the lack thereof) probably was the biggest factor.

And these are the same folks who buy a year's supply of bread and milk at the mere mention of flurries.

-SUO
 

Emulex

Diamond Member
Jan 28, 2001
9,759
1
71
i bet the first persons to get in the wreck felt like an ass for causing such a commotion :)
 

PG

Diamond Member
Oct 25, 1999
3,426
44
91
I feel sorry for all the people who were injured or died, but there isn't any good excuse for this. These people just don't know how to drive in winter conditions.

I just drove from Chicago to Des Moines a few weeks ago when Des Moines had the freezing rain and then the snow after that. At times it could be descibed as a white out. I counted about 40 cars or semis in the ditches on the way.
When I left Chicago it was raining hard, so I got to drive through everything on the way. Before I got to Des Moines the highway patrol had shut down I80 west of Des Moines, so I was lucky I only needed to go to Des Moines.
I feel I can drive through just about anything and this wasn't even the worst I have seen. One time driving from MN to Chicago on I90 through WI I saw about 60 vehicles in the ditches.
It just takes common sense and experience and sadly most people don't have enough experience or use their common sense when driving.