Holy Cow this Pileup in Michigan Is Intense

[Johmas50]

It's been cold enough to snow here in KY all week, but thankfully we haven't gotten any precipitation. I'm guessing these folks in Michigan were wishing the same. Terrible traffic mess here.

 

[biglar155]

Oh Man. I drive I-94 a lot when visiting inlaws. All I keep thinking is "We could have been tangled up in that mess."

 

[Big Shasta]

Amazing how fast those first cars were coming in....at least 60+ on those roads. Insane.

 

[Julian]

That is a perfect example of where the new transponder collision avoidance technology might come into play - if its range was far enough. Waze (social media traffic app) would warn you of an upcoming accident if it had been marked by someone....

There must have been a hill or overpass those cars are coming over as the visibility looked pretty good - 1-200+ yards.

That is the stretch of road I hit a deer on coming back from Detroit one night....drove it many many times when my parents lived in Detroit and I lived in Chicago.

 

[biglar155]

There must have been a hill or overpass those cars are coming over as the visibility looked pretty good - 1-200+ yards.

Visibility can be deceiving when looking through a stationary camera. I've taken video of some snowstorms where I could barely see across the street with the naked eye and it didn't look all that bad on camera.

I'll bet they couldn't see much beyond 50 feet in front of them. Plus that road is slippery - once they saw what was in front of them it was too late. They were traveling WAY too fast in those conditions.

We had a similar incident on I-43 right by the town of Belgium Wisconsin a few years ago - only it was fog. Most folks didn't slow down and it turned into a nightmare. In addition to the 40+ cars, the ambulances were getting into wrecks trying to get there due to a misunderstanding of where it was located - they were just driving right into it. A couple of the rescue vehicles wrecked on back-roads due to the fog and trying to hurry to get there.

It was bad.

One woman lived near the berm that separates the highway from the town. She heard the commotion and climbed the berm only to see her husbands truck fully engulfed in flame just a few yards away. (He didn't make it out.)

A buddy of mine came upon an accident at a 4-way stop near the on-ramp. He had to crawl up on the hood of a car and crawled halfway through the broken windshield lying in a puddle of blood trying to hold the young female driver's body upright so that she could breath. (The passenger was already gone.) Meanwhile he's got his phone in his other hand trying to explain to 911 where he was. The problem was that they were so close to the "big" wreck that 911 was confused about his location. No help ever arrived and the girl died right there with him trying to help her. Add to that, the whole time he's lying there, he's close enough to the freeway that every 20 seconds or so he'd hear a horn (sometimes a big rig), screeching tires, and a loud smash.

A lot of guys from work run on the ambulance and paramedic crews. They were really shook up afterward. A lot of them had been in accidents and by the time they made it to the scene it was too late to help some folks.

Please everyone: When the roads are slick and/or the visibility is low SLOW DOWN. That guy driving slow in the right lane isn't some "chickenshit idiot that doesn't know how to drive in snow." He knows exactly what he's doing and you should follow his example.

 

[Julian]

It was covered on the news last night....the highway still wasn't open as they were trying to clean up formic acid from a tanker truck. Only one fatality! 193 vehicles - 76 semis involved

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/01/10/highway-cleanup-continues-after-massive-wreck-in-mich/21566311/

 

[Speedling]

Did you see the fireworks truck on the 94 crash? News really focused on them hardcore. That truck was one of our main suppliers for this year!
Now we need to see what is left from them as we wholesale a lot of our fireworks! What a pain! But immediately said our prayers for those families because what a horrid accident!

 

[Topper232]

Wow very scary.