It was weird, right? I mean he's saying the right things about signing off to go help people but he's doing like play by play of people's deaths. I feel like nowadays people have a hard time realizing that youtube/reality tv can actually be real. I almost felt like he thought he was filming a fictional tv show.
Nearly 24 hours after snow squalls created white-out conditions on an Eastern Pennsylvania highway, resulting in a 50- to 60-vehicle pileup that claimed the lives of three people and injured many more, cleanup is only about h...
I drive in the winter in upstate NY (have been for 47 years).
It's wrong to jump to conclusions but seeing all those tractor trailers gets me thinking.
I've been tailgated by them, going 55 in conditions where we should have been going much slower.
They blow by you and your car shakes from the force.
I was once run off the road in icy conditions by one of them.
Yes, it could have been a couple lousy car drivers but if I had to bet ...
I lived in Cleveland for seven years and used to drive through snow belts on I-77 and I-90. Drove through a few snow storms on the PA turnpike when going to Philly to visit my sister. The Semi drivers do not give a f#ck about road conditions. I got caught in a squall on I-90 on the way to Erie, PA and it was coming down at about 3-4 inches an hour with barely 400m of visibility. All the cars were crawling along at 25-30 mph, trying to hold on to the narrow tread lines in the snow being carved out by traffic. The Semi drivers were going 55-60 and blasting everyone with sprays of snow. I counted 5 semis that had gone off the road over the course of about 30 min in the squall and not a single semi had slowed down despite seeing the highway littered with wrecks.
If the semi drivers would cut their speed to 20-25 mph and keep a good following distance of 400m or so in these storms, there wouldn't be any big wrecks. But instead of giving up an hour or two of road time to get through a storm safely, these semi drivers just go for it because they think that if they hit someone or get hit, they will be fine riding in a giant cab (even though semi drivers get killed all the time in wrecks).
I lived in Cleveland for seven years and used to drive through snow belts on I-77 and I-90. Drove through a few snow storms on the PA turnpike when going to Philly to visit my sister. The Semi drivers do not give a f#ck about road conditions. I got caught in a squall on I-90 on the way to Erie, PA and it was coming down at about 3-4 inches an hour with barely 400m of visibility. All the cars were crawling along at 25-30 mph, trying to hold on to the narrow tread lines in the snow being carved out by traffic. The Semi drivers were going 55-60 and blasting everyone with sprays of snow. I counted 5 semis that had gone off the road over the course of about 30 min in the squall and not a single semi had slowed down despite seeing the highway littered with wrecks.
If the semi drivers would cut their speed to 20-25 mph and keep a good following distance of 400m or so in these storms, there wouldn't be any big wrecks. But instead of giving up an hour or two of road time to get through a storm safely, these semi drivers just go for it because they think that if they hit someone or get hit, they will be fine riding in a giant cab (even though semi drivers get killed all the time in wrecks).
Can someone explain their thinking? Like since they drive a lot, don't they know it's dangerous as hell? And when they wreck they'll be way behind etc.... Or do they only think short term, "If I'm not there in time, I'm going to get yelled at, miss my next pick up etc."
I lived in Cleveland for seven years and used to drive through snow belts on I-77 and I-90. Drove through a few snow storms on the PA turnpike when going to Philly to visit my sister. The Semi drivers do not give a f#ck about road conditions. I got caught in a squall on I-90 on the way to Erie, PA and it was coming down at about 3-4 inches an hour with barely 400m of visibility. All the cars were crawling along at 25-30 mph, trying to hold on to the narrow tread lines in the snow being carved out by traffic. The Semi drivers were going 55-60 and blasting everyone with sprays of snow. I counted 5 semis that had gone off the road over the course of about 30 min in the squall and not a single semi had slowed down despite seeing the highway littered with wrecks.
If the semi drivers would cut their speed to 20-25 mph and keep a good following distance of 400m or so in these storms, there wouldn't be any big wrecks. But instead of giving up an hour or two of road time to get through a storm safely, these semi drivers just go for it because they think that if they hit someone or get hit, they will be fine riding in a giant cab (even though semi drivers get killed all the time in wrecks).
Can someone explain their thinking? Like since they drive a lot, don't they know it's dangerous as hell? And when they wreck they'll be way behind etc.... Or do they only think short term, "If I'm not there in time, I'm going to get yelled at, miss my next pick up etc."
I’ve spent a lot of time driving in the northeast (NY, NJ, DE, PA) and the Midwest (IL, IN, WI, MI, OH) and in my experience semi truck drivers are the first to head for rest stops and exits to pull off the highways when conditions become treacherous to drive in. Many passenger cars will continue to drive aggressively, seeing it as opportunity to pass other vehicles.
People really need to be more weather aware. That incident earlier this winter in VA on 95 is another example. Weather changes constantly, from day to day and from hour to hour. So many people of all generations are so reliant on just typing in "weather + zipcode" into google and basing their day off of whatever icon pops up at that time. Just because it is 50 and sunny now doesn't mean it won't be 25 and snowing and windy 3 hours later. Just because it snowed for an hour and now stopped, doesn't mean that the snow won't return in 2 hours.
I think we as runners are probably more weather aware than the masses but I still remember kids in high school who thought it would be shorts and t-shirts weather all March in New Jersey because there was one 70 degree day.
It was weird, right? I mean he's saying the right things about signing off to go help people but he's doing like play by play of people's deaths. I feel like nowadays people have a hard time realizing that youtube/reality tv can actually be real. I almost felt like he thought he was filming a fictional tv show.
Can someone explain their thinking? Like since they drive a lot, don't they know it's dangerous as hell? And when they wreck they'll be way behind etc.... Or do they only think short term, "If I'm not there in time, I'm going to get yelled at, miss my next pick up etc."
It's overconfidence. They've done it - driven faster than their vision and traction allows to have 100% confidence of stopping in time if something suddenly appears stopped in their lane - and have gotten away with it many times. So they think that luck will continue. The times I've driven in low visibility situations on a highway, I've always been surprised at how fast people want to drive. So many people are overconfident that when it goes wrong, you get those pileups with dozens of vehicles.
Part of it is also herd mentality. People see others driving too fast for the vision they have, and gain false confidence from that. If a few drivers slow way down, that can turn the tide because then it's OK, others are slowing down too. And of course, cars behind them have no choice but to slow down, and then it becomes a safe passage through the fog.
Compound that with slick roads that could easily increase stopping distances 5x-10x, and a lot of people die.
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