Whiteout pileup (with narration by person filming).

Who keeps driving at full speed when you can't see anything in front of you? !!! That's nuts !!!

Where I live there is a road where the terrain dips into a little valley where occasionally heavy fog suddenly rolls in and all of a sudden you can't see a foot in front of your car. People put on their emergency flashers, slow to a crawl or come to a full stop and hope they don't get rear ended. It happened to me and it was pretty scary but everyone was being careful and nothing bad happened. Cars will slowly inch their way forward following each other's tail light flashers until they gain enough elevation to be out of it and be on their way again. Nobody in their right mind would just power their way through a fog like that not knowing what was in front of them.
 
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Do cars there have rear foglights?
 
That video just shows the dumbness and stupidity of the average person.

The guy standing by the car while he could see cars piling up at speed, what a complete idiot!

Either people think they are better drivers then they are or with modern cars and their safety systems people think the forward collision won’t allow me to crash.

I used to see a dumbass on the M1 motorway when I used to work and drive to Dunstable, was something like a Peugeot 308 and he drove like an absolute arse until one day when it was raining heavily, he drove like his normal dumbass self, came round the corner to find he had hit the central barrier, car facing the wrong way and like a dumbass he was standing next to his on the blind corner just waiting to get wiped out.
 
I got really nervous seeing all those people standing on the edge of the road. I'm not sure I would feel safe even up the side of the hill. The noise of the vehicles crashing into each other was pretty crazy as well.
 
IAmATeaf said:
Either people think they are better drivers then they are or with modern cars and their safety systems people think the forward collision won’t allow me to crash.
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I live in an area where we regularly experience a lot of snow and challenging winter driving conditions but people here are used to it and have the skills and common sense to deal with it. Most folks have four wheel drive vehicles as well.

This is also a location that attracts a lot of skiers and tourists from urban and suburban areas and most of these people are completely clueless about driving on snowy and icy roads. Many of these people have four wheel drive vehicles too but they somehow believe they are magical to the degree that they can ignore common sense, speed limits and safe driving practices in snowy conditions. We often see them in their shiny new 4x4 SUVs stuck in ditches on the side of the roads on the way to the ski resorts. You can always tell by the funny colored out of state license plates.
 
I have been in conditions like this, and also crazy rain while on a road trip, and I got off the road as soon as I could and waited. It's just not safe to drive.
 
It's the same everywhere in all conditions. Drivers ignoring their safe stopping distance. Trying to save a few minutes costs them hours, or worse.
 
mentadent said:
Do cars there have rear foglights?
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Generally no, you only see then on a few high-spec European cars. And I'm given to understand that rear fog lights are illegal in some places.

Phil
 
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In the UK we do have rear fog lights but they changed the law some years ago to just a single bright red one as some were using the double ones to imitate braking for tailgaters.
 
I just can't understand how anyone could think it's OK to drive that fast in conditions like that. And even when damaged vehicles come into view he never slows down. And if he couldn't see them it's even more of a reason to slow down!

I see the latest news reports 5 fatalities.
 
Dashmellow said:
Who keeps driving at full speed when you can't see anything in front of you? !!! That's nuts !!!
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Danes will do that just fine, only severe snowfall, like a foot of powder on the road will slow people down
 
kamkar said:
Danes will do that just fine, only severe snowfall, like a foot of powder on the road will slow people down
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That's what the tourists do here. And like I said, they unusually end up in the ditch on the side of the road. I guess the Danes must be used to it so you guys must have the skills to get away with it. I do too actually but I slow down anyway. Too much black ice here for me to push my luck any more than I have to.
 
Last time we had that much snow, even on a nationwide average is over a decade ago.
in my region the last proper snowfall was in the mid 90ties, though that weekend did see most of the country closed for traffic, in the 10 years or so i have lived in this time the biggest snowfall was in 2012 where we got 4-5 inches of snow,,,,,,, which was gone again in a few days.

It snowed last night and from my camera i assume about 1 inch made my red car white, but that was also gone before noon i assume, it was for sure at 2 when i got out of bed. :oops:
 
kamkar said:
Last time we had that much snow, even on a nationwide average is over a decade ago.
in my region the last proper snowfall was in the mid 90ties, though that weekend did see most of the country closed for traffic, in the 10 years or so i have lived in this time the biggest snowfall was in 2012 where we got 4-5 inches of snow,,,,,,, which was gone again in a few days.

It snowed last night and from my camera i assume about 1 inch made my red car white, but that was also gone before noon i assume, it was for sure at 2 when i got out of bed. :oops:
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We had less snow than usual this year but in my area of Vermont we often average about 85 inches of snow per year (about 216 centimeters) A couple of years ago we got 112 inches (284.48 centimeters).
 
Dashmellow said:
I live in an area where we regularly experience a lot of snow and challenging winter driving conditions but people here are used to it and have the skills and common sense to deal with it. Most folks have four wheel drive vehicles as well.

This is also a location that attracts a lot of skiers and tourists from urban and suburban areas and most of these people are completely clueless about driving on snowy and icy roads. Many of these people have four wheel drive vehicles too but they somehow believe they are magical to the degree that they can ignore common sense, speed limits and safe driving practices in snowy conditions. We often see them in their shiny new 4x4 SUVs stuck in ditches on the side of the roads on the way to the ski resorts. You can always tell by the funny colored out of state license plates.
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Fair call about the skiers but I saw many Semi's ploughing thru too.
I can't believe the speed the vehicles are travelling at with such low vision.

Years ago I was driving late at night interstate and the fog rolled in so thick I could barely see the road. I slowed down to what felt like a crawl as I didn't know the road, fortunately, saw tail lights ahead and followed them until the next town where I pulled into a motel. It wasn't worth the risk.
A friend had to watch out for black ice every day during our winter on his way to work. I'm used to wet and average weather roads but not black ice or snow like it is in that video.

In Australia, we are dealing with Floods. One idiot politician said it was a once in a 500 year flood!! The British weren't here 500 years ago.
Here a look at just one town.
Note the bridge in the backgound.

 
LateralNW said:
Fair call about the skiers but I saw many Semi's ploughing thru too.
I can't believe the speed the vehicles are travelling at with such low vision.

Years ago I was driving late at night interstate and the fog rolled in so thick I could barely see the road. I slowed down to what felt like a crawl as I didn't know the road, fortunately, saw tail lights ahead and followed them until the next town where I pulled into a motel. It wasn't worth the risk.
A friend had to watch out for black ice every day during our winter on his way to work. I'm used to wet and average weather roads but not black ice or snow like it is in that video.

In Australia, we are dealing with Floods. One idiot politician said it was a once in a 500 year flood!! The British weren't here 500 years ago.
Here a look at just one town.
Note the bridge in the backgound.

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Yeah, you are right about the Semi's. Some of them drive like maniacs and they end up jack-knifing out on the major highways. Many of these guys are under a lot of pressure to keep to a tight schedule and it just makes things worse from a safety standpoint.

Black Ice freaks me out. Where I live, I encounter it all the time and often you just can't see it even when you are trying to be vigilant. It's even worse on the many of dirt roads like the one I live on because you usually can't see the stuff. One night, I was driving a friend home who lives in a house in a remote location on a dirt road out in the woods along a river. We were chatting and I was taking it easy, not driving very fast, maybe 20 miles per hour (32km/h). Suddenly, with no warning, we started spinning out of control and did a full 360 in my truck. All of sudden I had zero traction. NONE! Amazingly, we didn't hit anything and came to a stop when we skidded off the ice. Another foot or so and we would have T-boned into a tree. If we had gone the other way we would have ended up in the river. It seems that part of the road had flooded with about an inch of water and frozen over with a light dusting of snow on it so you couldn't see the black ice at all.

That flood is astonishing! Unfortunately, despite what the Brits may say, it looks as if 500 year floods are becoming pretty common around the world these days. That term doesn't mean anything anymore.

EDIT: Actually, since we're talking about black ice and winter traction, I've had an interesting experience this winter. Last November, heading into the winter I needed to buy a new set of tires for my truck. I bought a new set of the same brand and model tires I've been running previously because I've had good experience with them and they are priced well, (Cooper Discoverer AT3) but they've really upped their game with the new 4S version. Previously, they were M&S rated (Mud & Snow, as were all the tires I've always run) but the newer ones have the "Mountain/Snowflake Symbol"instead of the M&S marking on the sidewall. The Mountain/Snowflake Symbol meets more stringent winter traction performance requirements and has been rated for “severe snow service" which includes snowy, slippery roads and low temperature or freezing roads. I've been blown away by the performance difference. In many situations this winter where I would have engaged 4 wheel drive, I didn't need it, like even when my driveway was sheer ice! The tires definitely felt more sure footed when I was driving in difficult snowy and icy conditions this winter. Same with the mud! ( I still slow down when the conditions are treacherous though, regardless of how good these tires perform).

You can read more about the Mountain/Snowflake symbol rating HERE.

Mountain/Snowflake severe weather rated symbol
MountainSnowflake-symbol.jpg
 
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Kremmen said:
In the UK we do have rear fog lights but they changed the law some years ago to just a single bright red one as some were using the double ones to imitate braking for tailgaters.
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Are you sure about that?

I thought it was just the manufacturers saving money by only fitting one, same as most only fit one reversing lamp these days...
I've got two of each.

For the annual MOT test, we must have "at least one", and cars imported from the USA must have them added!

"As at least one rear fog light is also a legal requirement, all fog lights must be in good working condition, else an MOT will be failed.
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