60-car pile-up on I-81 in Pennsylvania during a fog and snow storm...

[JohnRBaker]

Here's a video taken by one of the people involved in that 60-car pile-up in Pennsylvania this past Monday. As you watch the video, listen carefully as you can hear the vehicles continuing to crash into each other:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRXMtDlX0Ko

That last item I read said that six people were killed.

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
Irvine, CA
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[Enable]

I can't appropriately convey how I feel watching the cars crash into each other at such high velocities. It gives me such an incredibly tragic feeling mixed with a dash of why?

I think I just really can't comprehend. Why is everyone going so fast when they cannot see? It almost looks like the cars are ripping at regular pace. Maybe I'm being thrown by the relativity but those cars don't seem to be going under 60km/h to me. And you have people standing next to their cars near the road knowing others are about to do the same? Like what are you doing there?

Really just don't understand and very saddened by this. It's a miracle more didn't die from the head on collisions and silliness of standing by the vehicles.

 

[SuperSalad]

Those squalls came very fast and with little or no warning other than the weather report saying squalls were possible during the day.

I was amazed sitting in my office that day and then at home later in the day how I could be looking outside at a calm day, look away for a few minutes and it looked like a blizzard when I'd come back, and then gone again after another few minutes. The fog there was also obviously treacherous and you can drive in and out of heavy fog pretty quickly there.

I'm not saying he drivers shouldn't have been more cautious, but there were some serious outside factors causing this.

- Andrew

 

[cranky108]

To me the headline should have been 60 bad drivers crash in fog.

 

[FacEngrPE]

I-81 Crash Update 5pm Mar 28, 2022 Aftermath
Working to remove wreckage from deadly Interstate 81 pile-up Mar 29, 2022 At least 3 dead, 26 injured.

Afton Mountain in Virginia I64 is high enough that passing clouds occasionally are lower than the highway, making the lain marks very difficult to see.
Video Fog on I-64 at Afton Mountain - YouTube

A system of fog guidance lights was installed in 1974, was refurbished in 2009, and continues to operate.

This report goes to great lengths to describe the difficulty of dealing with drivers response to driving into a fog bank at 60mph with 20 foot visibility.
INSTALLATION OF FOG GUIDANCE LIGHTS ON AFTON MOUNTAIN by Marion F. Creech Materials Research Analyst (attached)

 

[LionelHutz]

That Dodge driver should have kept going down the road to safety. The car behind was moving too and the Dodge moving would have let it move down the road too.

This kind of event shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. Everyone is is a hurry today, it doesn't matter what the road conditions are. There were a few times during the winter I was going 50kph because I could pretty much spin the tires at will just by easing the gas pedal down a bit and the cars behind me were either up my ass almost trying to push me or passing. Around here, there is almost no road enforcement anymore (we can't afford to pay the over-priced beat cops $120k a year to do that) which just enables the bad driving habits like aggressive driving and speeding and running traffic lights and stop signs.

 

[cranky108]

Just as bad is the trend to ignore what is seen as minor traffic infractions like broken tail lights, head lights, expired plates, driving with bright lights, etc. Just makes things worse.

 

[BrianPetersen]

Perhaps the requirement in European motor vehicle standards to have both front and rear fog lamps - and to require their proper use! - is not a bad idea.

 

[LittleInch]

It's only one rear fog light as a aminimum, but universsl yellow indicators / hazard lights also makes it much clearer that something is happening.

Is becoming very common here for people to hit the hazards when they can see a sudden stop coming up. Then everyone further back starts hitting them as well and you get a much more controlled slow down.

But the speed some of those people were going in very slippery foggy conditions was just ridiculous

Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.

 

[Alistair_Heaton]

Most round me use fog lights when inappropriate.

Always done the hazard lights if threat ahead thing.

 

[Red Corona]

Fog lights are a good idea to be sure. But the visibility in this video isn't even that bad. It's not a mechanical or equipment problem, it's an idiot driver problem, people continuing to drive at speeds that mean they can't stop within the distance they can see with the condition of the road.

 

[spsalso]

You are assuming, perhaps correctly, that the fog extends past the area in the picture. It can take time to react to a big white marshmallow in the roadway just ahead.

I also wonder about a slippery road surface. If, coincident to the marshmallow, the roadway is teflon.....


Not saying that's true, but it has occurred to me.



spsalso

 

[dik]

It's really bad when the fog lights show yellow fog and you can only drive by looking at the traffic lane separation lines...

Rather than think climate change and the corona virus as science, think of it as the wrath of God. Do you feel any better?

-Dik

 

[davefitz]

this reminds me of a possible issue with fog being generated at air cooled condensers ACC that are located near highways. There is one such large ACC located at the canadian side of the new Gordie Howe bridge between Detroit and W Windsor , set to open in 2024.

"...when logic, and proportion, have fallen, sloppy dead..." Grace Slick

 

[cranky108]

Just a note, but I recall that the hazard lights don't flash when you press the break.

But also the theory some people have is that if you get up close to people behind, they will go faster.
And we have a lot of inexperienced drivers around here. People who are always late.

 

[LittleInch]

US hazard lights which for reasons I still don't understand use the brake lights for the indicators.

It must have seemed like a good way to save a few dollars to combine turn indicators with the brake light when this first came out, but now??

Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.

 

[LionelHutz]

Yeah, cheaper to run 3 wires to the back and combine the tail, turn and brake into a single bulb. Why would manufacturers change and spend more? It won't fix the fact that this pileup was caused by stupid driving, not vehicle defects.

Euro rear fog light is a single red, which I haven't found to give much extra visibility over tail lights.

 

[TugboatEng]

Cars need fog lasers on the rear. Keep near ground level so they don't shine in the eyes of following drivers. The fog will illuminate the beam with a line pointing to the vehicle ahead. Two beams could be used to give a perception of distance.

 

[Alistair_Heaton]

If it was a coded laser pulse it would be easy enough for a sensor on the front to take a Doppler closure rate to boot.

 

[LionelHutz]

Yup, sounds like a great idea, guide the car behind you with a laser line so the driver can follow the line and smash squarely into you.