We’ve all seen the news stories about huge traffic accidents that gather up dozens and dozens of cars at a whack. The other day in Michigan there was a catastrophe that involved some 150 vehicles and in the bedlam lives were lost and chaos reigned supreme. Video has surfaced from the scene and it was taken from the cell phone of a man who was either in the wreck itself or passing the other direction on the highway. Either way, he is out in the open with his camera on and you’ll see cars and big rigs come through the snow to see themselves faced with a literal logjam of vehicles and they have nowhere to go but straight into them. The sounds that the big rigs make when heading into the pile are sickening. Normally we avoid showing you video of a scene where people lost their lives, but I am making an exception here because this video is some of the most stark evidence of why winter driving techniques and practices need to be followed.
The people you will see crash here (and the scant few who manage to avoid huge impacts were minding their business and simply driving down a snow covered Michigan highway like they had done, dozens, hundreds, of thousands of times in their lives. The one grave mistake that was made by the majority of people in this video (including the truckers) surrounds speed. As we live in a world of AWD cars that can accelerate on skating rinks, we continue to disrespect that AWD, FWD, or whatever your system provides no measurable benefit over others in a situation like this. The rate that these drivers are moving at when they come out of the snow/fog and see a wall of wreckage in front of them is frightening. I’m as guilty of driving outside of the logical boundaries of the conditions on occasion as anyone else but I am going to reference this video the next time I want to show myself or someone else how feeble even the most advanced of cars are when in these conditions.
This is truly stunning video and while there is no graphic blood, etc, there are lots of crashes.
PRESS PLAY BELOW TO SEE A MASSIVE MICHIGAN HIGHWAY PILEUP IN PROGRESS –
Lead photo: ABC
Bad stretch of hiway 193 total just reopened this morning. Unfortunately 1fatality. Could have been worse. Like a wind tunnel in that area.Heavy snow near zero visibility. Main road between Detroit and Chicago. SLOW DOWN!!!
Also you are right about AWD and 4 wheel drive, can be very dangerous. Gives you a false sense of control. Still can’t stop even with abs. I have driven this road many times.Be careful use your head
I drive this stretch every day to and from work. Kalamazoo to Battle Creek. Every time snow comes down, accidents and slide offs are extremely common. People have become too dependent on the technology that has been built into their cars. Being able to get enough traction to move at 70 mph doesn’t mean that you should, and people have forgotten that. When I drove through there 3 hours earlier, it was a complete skating rink. Took me 45 minutes for a normally 20 minute commute.
This could have easily been avoided if these people would have just slowed the hell down.
I agree traveling too fast for the conditions .
Meh…we Americans think we’re something. In europe, its not uncommon for 200 car pile ups during the winter, and I was over there once when they had a 400+ car pile up!
Its called, “winter’.
Scary video! There is a stretch of I-24 near Chattanooga, TN where bad fog is common. There have been wrecks like that up there. Nothing you can do but hold on.
Terrible. God help those that were hurt or families of those killed. Someone had to die in that black jeep that went under the tractor trailer. Stay home in this weather.
It looked like the only thing that interrupted the crashes was a trucker, probably who got a radio alert from another that was involved.
I thought truckers had good communication in certain areas? Not that it’s there fault. People just can’t figure it out, learn by others mistakes.
It never fails to amaze me how people drive in conditions like this. Too fast, no lights on, etc. I’d rather crawl along at 40 miles an hour and get where I want to go a few hours later than wrecking my car or worse.
agreed…where I live ( Australia) if theres a hint of rain everyone crawls along…can’t understand how people could fly along in that kind of terrible visibility, particularly when they know how ineffective their brakes will be in those icy conditions…and as for truckers doing it, not paying them out but they really should know better..