Posted on 06/10/2009 10:32:12 AM PDT by Ben Mugged
SAN BERNARDINO - As many as 50 vehicles were involved in a chain-reaction accident early Wednesday in fog on the north 15 freeway in the Cajon Pass, with injuries reported and wreckage scattered for a half-mile, authorities said.
The number and severity of injuries was not immediately known, California Highway Patrol Officer Jacki Parent said.
The chain-reaction collision began when two tractor-trailer rigs crashed in northbound lanes, officers said.
Motorist Phil Cokkinos told KTTV's "Good Day LA" program by phone that he saw three separate multi-vehicle accidents as he zigzagged along Interstate 15 near the summit of Cajon Pass. The last crash was the largest, he said.
"There was like three, four big-rigs, a couple cars accordioned in between them. In all between the three accidents, 50 cars-plus," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at pasadenastarnews.com ...
they will be slowed down now
I was coming out of Tahoe headed west on I-80 on Valentine’s weekeknd. Chain warning and the 15mph(?) limitation was in force. As soon as the Chain Requirement sign was off halfway down, despite rain, sleet and snow, the traffic resumed the 75 mph mixed with 40 miles per hour slower vehicles that is the staple of California drivers in the winter mountains.
I have to admit, I was impressed about the compliance of the low speed limitation in the chain area, however, but with all the traffic moving so slowly, even the typical weaving and driving on the shoulder wasn’t going to work.
Where was Cheney?
People don’t know how to drive in adverse conditions in CA. It’s amazing how even a comparatively short drive from LA to Big Bear demonstrates how few people actually KNOW how to drive in snow and ice.
Sad to say, Californians can’t even drive in the rain. That wasn’t the conditions this morning though. Dense fog. ANd yes, they were going too fast to see the cars and trucks in front of them.
Most people in the rest of the world really have no idea how dense that fog can get. I used to live and work near there and we designated (unofficially, of course) how dense the fog was by watching the dashed lines on the highway. If we could see three dashes it was safe to drive about twenty miles per hour. Occasionally though, it would get so bad we couldn’t see the next segment and that was when we had to pull over and stop. Even then, there were times when we’d almost hit someone who had already parked their car.
The next time you get the chance take a look at the lines on the highway near you. They use the same pattern in California.
That was our criteria when we lived in the San Joaquin Valley in the '60s and the damned tule fog came rolling in.
At that time a friend of mine told me about his trip along the Interstate near San Diego. The fog came in so they slowed down to a crawl while others ran by at 50-60 mph. In the lower road noise they kept hearing a muffled "whump". After the third "whump" they pulled over and stopped. The "whumps" turned out to be those 50-milers slamming into the wreckage of earlier "whumpers". Darwin at work.
I was in fog so bad once that I had to get out of the car and walk in front of it while my buddy drove the car, following the flashlight beam I had trained into his face. I walked into a tree.
Cajon Pass closed following 50 car pileup!!!!
NASCAR wanna-be
I remember when I was TDY at Castle (Atwater, CA), staring straight up at a lit streetlight at night and barely being able to make out the globe.
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