Every time I read about another 100+ car pileup in Texas I just can’t figure out how it could happen. I mean, if the roads are icy, don’t you slow down? If there is limited visibility from fog, don’t you slow down?
/puzzled headshake
Fog like that on a busy multilane interstate, you don’t know what to do. Keep moving and hit somebody, stop and get hit. I guess you could try to pull over as far right on the emergency lane as possible, exit the vehicle and get behind the guardrail until the fog clears. Not much else you can do.
So sorry for those who died or were injured.
We deal with something called Tule Fog here in California’s Central Valley — when I first saw this story I assumed that was where the pile-up took place. The fog is SO thick you can’t see to the end of the hood of your car!! I remember my father once getting out of the car and walking along the right side front fender guiding my mother until we could exit the freeway.
Highway Patrol says to move over to the right as quickly and carefully as possible, put your tire on the white line along the right side of the right line and follow it until you find an exit and then get off the freeway. They also
recommend NOT getting out of your car, apparently you’re safer inside than out.
Back in my truck driving days I had a similar situation in Oklahoma. Visibility went from great, to none. It’s a very lonely feeling. On one hand, I knew I could pull over to the shoulder and I would be fine but if I pulled over, there was a decent chance a car would rear-end my trailer. I did not want to be partially responsible for killing anyone.
I never did pull over, I slowed to 50 and prayed. Got lucky....
In Jan of this year Hwy 73 which is a few miles south and runs parallel to IH-10 had a major pileup of vehicles (79 or so). Apparently fog and smoke from burning marsh grass causing limited visibility was a factor.
The road J&P traveled to see their sister, Sarah?
I was behind this pile-up yesterday, going to a relative’s house for Thanksgiving. I can’t say what the fog was like at the point of the pile-up, because we never made it that far, but the fog we went through was NOT zero visibility. We could see at least a quarter of a mile, and had no problem seeing the cars in front of us for a good way.
Perhaps 30 minutes before we came upon the road block and were diverted onto another highway, my husband commented that people were driving too fast in the fog and he made it a point to back off and leave a greater distance between our vehicle and the ones ahead of us.
There were at least 5 cars of people at our Thanksgiving dinner that had planned to travel that stretch of highway that morning, not in a caravan, all separately. Fortunately, we all made it through without being involved, and were just detoured and delayed by few minutes.