19 thoughts on “The Pile Up In Michigan”

  1. That roadway plainly isn’t good for more than 25-30 mph TOPS, and the sight-lines aren’t so great, either. Yet it looks like people are trying to do 50 or so on it.

    And I thought Marylanders got their driver’s licences from Sears? Yeesh.

  2. I was in Minneapolis one year during first snow. They seem to have to learn to drive every winter. Almost unbelievable. I love driving in the snow when I’m not going cross country.

  3. That video must have been just before the truck carrying fireworks in the middle of all that exploded.

    It’s the same up here in Canada, people lose their damn minds driving after the first snowfall, like they’ve forgotten that there’s snow on the ground for most of the year up here.

    1. They probably wouldn’t even see you, if they can’t the the stopped vehicles up ahead. But, flash lights, honk your horn, or something people!

    2. Did you see some of the wildly unpredictable paths some of those vehicles took? I wouldn’t want to be anywhere near them on foot.

  8. Not to be uncharitable, but my first thought was, “Why the hell are they driving so fast under those conditions?” Having spent many years living in either Colorado or Utah — and having made many trips between the two places, often through Wyoming — I have great respect for how treacherous and deadly roads like that can be. (As a college freshman, I once drove 5-10 mph for nearly 30 miles on freeway/highway in a blizzard, while watching cars slide off the road left and right.)

    Pretty heartbreaking and terrifying to watch the pileup take shape.

    1. A few weeks ago I drove between Laramie and Rawlins with blowing snow in the 50mph gusts. The “variable speed limit” had been dropped to 45, and there was no way I wanted my 4wd truck to be going even that fast. Several stretches I was in a line of semi-trucks and we all were creeping along with our hazard lights on. And yet various idiots were zipping right past us. That’s what really scares me in those conditions– the other idiots flying up my tail pipe.

      (The trip back the next week, with temps around -25 in Rock Springs was much more pleasant.)

    1. With well over 100 million cars on the road, how long will it take for more than 10% of all cars (not to mention trucks) to be interconnected in a meaningful way?

    2. Um, yeah. Networked cars will beat unpredictable black ice.

      One guy in the comments (who lives around there) remarked that his parked car once slid downhill. By itself. While parked.

      1. I think the position about interconnected “smart” cars in this case is more related to warning other drivers about the complete stoppage of traffic ahead and/or road conditions that lead to this sort of thing happening in the first place.

        If one car has an ABS and/or traction control application in a certain section of road, it’s unremarkable. If a significant number of cars start reporting that same thing in the same section, it’s an indication of a road hazard, and could be communicated to other road users to avoid pileups.

        Likewise, interconnected “smart” cars can report other items about road conditions, such as air temp, pavement temp, etc., which could lead to Departments of Transportation having better information with which to fight road icing and similar issues.

        Of course, the more cars that report this information, the more likely it could be used to track a person, depending on who writes the machine code, and who writes the legal code governing the use of such data. The code and laws that dictate whether or not there would be pre-emptive intervention to second-guess the driver are another matter, too. I would suggest not having such intervention based solely on data from other vehicles (automatic reduction in cruise control speed when a traffic jam approaches), but have it based on the vehicle’s own telemetry and/or issue a significantly attention-grabbing warning about the impending doom, and let the driver freak out on his/her own.

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