Jump to content

Stay in the truck, Tameeka, you dumb bitch!

Beau Vine

By Beau Vine
in Daily Texan

 Share

Recommended Posts

RPM

RPM 26322

Posted
Posted (edited)

Depends on what you're hauling. You might want to take your chances with inbound vehicles vs blast zone.

Feet don't fail me now!

And they should be on the radio/Waze warning people instead of filming. 

Edited by RPM
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Jkwellborn

Jkwellborn 6704

Posted
Posted
I understand the first couple of trucks were prob in the immediate wreck.  I also understand that most car drivers are idiots.  That being said, there's no excuse for those truck drivers to be flying down a snow covered hwy at that speed.

Lot of states require snow chains to run when it starts getting cold. They could have been using them. Or truck drivers are idiots. Like everyone else.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Homercles

Homercles 10206

Posted
Posted
“Hey Gil, there’s a major pileup going on an icy interstate. Where would you like to be?”

Oh, I don’t know. Maybe in the cab of a stationary Kenworth with a 80,000 lb gross weight?


This...if you’re the poor dude in the blue car, you could make a case for risking it to get the hell out...but sitting in a giant fucking truck is about as good as it gets. She woulda hopped out, fell on her ass and gotten run over instantly.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
phdhorn

phdhorn 6224

Posted
Posted (edited)

Wow, here is my cool story bro.  In a spoiler because, well I don't know why except it's pretty tl;dr so this saves space.  But I can understand why something like this can happen because I went through it myself.  That's the story.
 

Spoiler

I can relate to this big time.  Mid--1980's, GF and I joined a ski party (buncha friends) for Christmas break.  I was going to UMich at the time.  Get done with the ski week and I'm on route back to Ann Arbor, which the quickest way is actually I-90 across New York State, through Buffalo into Ontario, and re-enter U.S. in Windsor (across from Detroit).

Now I grew up more or less in snow country (well enough anyway) and consider myself a pretty good winter driver - I know how it's done.  I also heard a lot about "Lake Effect: snows in the Great Lakes region (it wasn't too many years before that Buffalo had something like 142" that winter!).  I knew enough to keep posted on the radio... all afternoon the Buffalo stations were saying "snow flurries", that's it.  So far so good.

About 15 miles past Rochester, I see this faint but very dark band of clouds on the horizon.  Otherwise it was 100% clear.  This band began to grow as we got closer to Buffalo.  Radio is still saying snow flurries.  Uh, okay.  Remember, we're doing at least 70 westbound and Rochester is about 60 miles from Buffalo.  Band keeps coming, radio keeps saying snow flurries.

This is where it got surreal.  A town called Batavia is about 30 miles west of Rochester, about halfway between Buffalo and Rocherster.  We're only about 15 miles outside of Batavia, when that band became a complete cloud cover and it started snowing.  In only about 15 miles, the snow turned from flurries into a bona-fide blizzard.  I'm talking about snowpocalypse.  Finally the fucking radio says "Lake Effect Storm for Buffalo east into New York State."  Thanks a fucking lot.  

I am not shitting you.. in only 15 minutes, the snow went from flurries to blinding, it piled up on the roads so quickly that they became slick and almost impassable - way too quickly for crews to react.  Winds were blowing 70 mph gusts, and the snow in a matter of 20 minutes went from nothing to 5-8 inches on the road drifting over a foot.  I had never imagined, never mind seen, anything like it.   And I am not fucking exaggerating.

Now it was about 4 p.m. and we were about 2 miles past Batavia.  You couldn't see two feet in front of you, period.  I was doing about 30 maybe, but it didn't matter.  

<BLAM>.  Out of nowhere I saw the car in front of me way too late, rear-ended it.  Then... <BLAM!> I was rear-ended not 10 seconds later.  Then a series of the same thing.  Fortunately no one was going too fast, no serious injuries at this point.

This continued all the way down the Interstate.  As it turned out, there was about 1/2 mile of this (chain wrecks) stretching down I-90.  Later I would find out that we were about #7 in a chain reaction involving over 200 cars (and some semis).  I don't know if anyone was killed but up around our end, no.

This is where it got even weirder.  We were sandwiched in between several cars, we couldn't go anywhere, the crews weren't yet able to get to us, and there was nothing we could do.  The winds were blowing at 50 mph consistently and the car was rocking.  I didn't panic, fortunately we had food and warm clothes from skiing, so GF and I simply reasoned we'll make a nice nest, turn on the heat when we needed it, and bury ourselves and wait for rescue. That was about all you could do. 

However, just after making the nest, we saw cars sliding by and although by this time there was a chain in back of us, we saw a semi slide by us.  As I had brightly colored clothes from skiing, including a bright orange jacket, the thought actually occurred to me that I might be able to be seen and get drivers to avoid the growing pileup, so I got out for a few moments in that hell and looked down the Interstate.  Cars were already lined up but there but you could see headlights down the road of a few semis who hadn't seen it yet.  A few people told me to run down and flag the trucks, which I did... I got several hundred yards past the pile at this point and a semi was coming straight for it like a bowling ball.  I  actually got down the road and frantically waved for the guy to stop, having a plan of where to bail if he didn't see me.  He did and immediately hit the brakes, he then slid and veered off to the right and jackknifed into the median, but didn't topple.  He would have absolutely killed anyone on first impact.   As it  was getting brutal, I told some other people to do the same shit down the line - I don't know if they did but apparently the word had gotten out and I suppose that people started avoiding the interstate because I never heard anything else.  I made it back to the car, warmed up (man it was awful and I was bundled up like an Antarctic explorer as it was).  Then GF and I settled in and just tried to nap or at least stay relaxed.

It was now after dark, and still snowing like a motherfucker.  But about an hour after we nested in, I heard a rap on the window, saw a State Cop.  Rolled down the window, he asked if anyone was hurt, I said no fortunately, then he said does the car work,  I said I think (although the headlight was bashed out), he said try to follow him.  He got in the car and turned on his lights, even with them flashing, I could barely see him 25 feet ahead of me.  He took me on an U-turn and we went up an entrance ramp to another route.  There were wrecked/abandoned cars everywhere, and it was impossible to see.  About 2-3 times I went very slow, knocked into an abandoned car, backed up, went a bit, knocked into another one.  It was fucking unreal, my first and only demolition derby, but I didn't want to lose the cop.  

We finally made it to a police station and next to it was a hotel.  Cops gave us coffee and something to eat and said might as well hole up, we ain't going anywhere for at least a day.  

We ended up in the hotel room for three entire days.  28 inches of snow with 8 foot drifts had fallen in the area and they couldn't get it cleared for at least 2 days.  I don't know why, but they couldn't.  The third day we finally were cleared to go, my bashed-up car made it to Buffalo.

So watching TV in the room, we came to find out that a massive lake effect storm had broken, wasn't predicted, and caught even Greater Buffalo by surprise (which I think explained the not-so-quick clearing of the roads).  It took the cops about 15 hours to work from both ends to get the cars cleared... we got out relatively fast because we were at one end.  The interstate was closed for 3 days.  And - most incredibly - the entire thing was only over about 30 miles.  That was it.

The incredible thing is that once we got over the Peace Bridge and on the north side of the city, they had only about 3" of snow, period.  That was only about 15 miles from our Winter of Death scene, but the roads were clear, it was as if nothing happened - because, well in that area, it didn't.  It was again mind-bottling how not 15 miles away it was a whole different animal.  



Besides for your free entertainment value, as I said above, I posted this because, although I don't really know why/how some of these pileups happen (like, why the fuck are they out there on the road???), I can attest that 1) sometimes these things come out of nowhere and despite your best efforts, they ambush you 2) once you're on the road, what can you do but try to get off of it as quickly as possible, but 3) at times it can be much harder than you think.  Yeah a lot of people are idiots but sometimes even the not-so-dumb ones can get burnt.

I can see how this happens, I lived through it once.

Edited by phdhorn
  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites
smuggs

smuggs 9353

Posted
Posted
Quote

We ended up in the hotel room for three entire days.  28 inches of snow with 8 foot drifts had fallen in the area and they couldn't get it cleared for at least 2 days.  I don't know why, but they couldn't.  The third day we finally were cleared to go, my bashed-up car made it to Buffalo.

Probably some front-end damage to the cock-n-balls, amirite?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Surly Bevo

Surly Bevo 24961

Posted
Posted

Yea i'm not buying all of that PHD at least in this situation.  That a snowstorm can sneak up on you, sure but that you are still driving as fast as these assholes clearly were once in it...they're fucking retards.  You need about 720 feet to come to a complete stop from 80mph in wet conditions in an average car.  Hell let's double that and go to 1440.  I'm gonna go ahead and say a 1/4 mile back conditions were pretty shitty and these fuckers bought their tickets if they kept their foot down on the vertical pedal on the right.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites
phdhorn

phdhorn 6224

Posted
Posted

Like I said, by the time I was in the middle of it, I was maybe doing 30.  I'm sure there were some assholes that were cruising along, but nope, it happened.  The reason why it wasn't worse is that most people were not doing 80, never mind 50.  No doubt there were some idiots that didn't know how to drive (I saw plenty of those in my life, some asshole in a Mercedes was doing about 70 in a snowstorm in Vermont, a few minutes later we passed the cops and him as he was in a ditch on his side).  But I can see situations where you are simply fucked.  You can't get off the road, you have no choice.  Not everyone in a winter pileup is an idiot, I guess is the point here.  For the OP?  Probably a bunch.  But it can happen to smart drivers.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
hookem48

hookem48 4687

Posted
Posted
57 minutes ago, Huckleberry said:

The fuck part of Houston do you live in? My experience is that Houston drivers go 85 in the dry and slow down to 25 as soon as two drops hit their windshield.

I haven't lived there in forever but I've never heard anyone say Houston drivers slow down for anything. lol

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Huckleberry

Huckleberry 32881

Posted
Posted
4 minutes ago, longhornmatt said:

It always amazed me how in Austin you’d be on a road with say a 45 mph speed limit, and then it would have a stretch with a 20 mph school zone, and then a sharp curve or something else that reduced the recommended speed, and 90% of the drivers would just go a constant 35 mph through all of that.

Yes, this is what I'm talking about. Austin drivers have always seemed to just pick some random speed 10-15mph under the speed limit and just travel that speed regardless of conditions or traffic changes.

The school zone thing extends elsewhere, though. Seems like lots of drivers just don't take those things seriously. I go through four school zones on the way to work if I take surface streets here in the Houston suburbs and frequently see cars make zero speed adjustment for them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Beau Vine

Beau Vine 54242

Posted
  • Author
Posted
6 minutes ago, longhornmatt said:

It always amazed me how in Austin you’d be on a road with say a 45 mph speed limit, and then it would have a stretch with a 20 mph school zone, and then a sharp curve or something else that reduced the recommended speed, and 90% of the drivers would just go a constant 35 mph through all of that.

That's the way my wife drives.  We're about 3 miles from a movie theater.  The speed limits along the way are 55, 60, and 45.  She'll drive 50 the entire 3 miles.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Shenanigans

Shenanigans 31

Posted
Posted
On 2/18/2019 at 11:43 AM, NeverMarryAStripper said:

Yes, but as soon as the rain causes water levels on the road to reach flood stage Houstonians will speed up and power through

But Bro, I'm totally sure my sedan can make it through that puddle, those idiots over there were just driving through the deep part!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
davidg

davidg 4038

Posted
Posted
On 2/18/2019 at 9:49 AM, Huckleberry said:

The fuck part of Houston do you live in? My experience is that Houston drivers go 85 in the dry and slow down to 25 as soon as two drops hit their windshield.

You left out the part about them turning the flashers at those first two drops.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
RPM

RPM 26322

Posted
Posted
7 hours ago, Beau Vine said:

That's the way my wife drives.  We're about 3 miles from a movie theater.  The speed limits along the way are 55, 60, and 45.  She'll drive 50 the entire 3 miles.

Have a bad case of drivers like that out in the sticks, too. Farmer Fred / Aunt Blabby goes 50 in a 65 and the same 50 when it drops to 40. Drives me nuts.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
elfenix

elfenix 34266

Posted
Posted (edited)
6 hours ago, davidg said:

You left out the part about them turning the flashers at those first two drops.

these people annoy the fuck out of me.  same with the assholes who don't turn on their lights at all. also, truck taillights are woefully insufficient. 

Edited by elfenix
Link to comment
Share on other sites
ImissWallyPryor

ImissWallyPryor 9046

Posted
Posted (edited)

My snowy road conditions with a Texas FB twist tl;dr story:

I flew to the 2010 BCSCG from an airport 3 hours away for reasons I won’t get into, but when we were on one highway heading for the interstate, I found out they were closing the interstate because of an snow storm that was underway.

We doubled back to take another route, hoping to get on the interstate ahead of the storm. We got to our new entrance (70 mikes to the east of our original entrance) just as a crew was arriving to close the gates to the entrance ramp. At least we were ahead of the worst part of the storm.

Luckily, I got behind a snowplow gong 60+ in the right lane, knowing that at least that lane was gong to be clear (I am aware that one shouldn’t “crowd the plow,” so I stayed back a bit). There was an 18-wheeler following behind me.

At one underpass, the wind had created a large drift, and when that plow hit it going highway speeds, it sent up a huge, blinding cloud of snow.  For the longest five seconds of my life, I was driving completely blind with a plow in front of me, a semi-truck behind me, and guardrails and concrete pillars to either side. My F-150 seemed pretty puny right about then.

Then the cloud disappeared, all was well, and I made my flight, only to see Colt go down early in the game.

When we got back 4 days later, my truck was buried in snow with a dead battery because I forgot to unplug my battery-draining bastard, a.k.a. Sirius radio.

Fun times.

 

Edited by ImissWallyPryor
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
 Share
Go to topic listing


Football ... Basketball ... Baseball ... Other Sports ... Futbol ... 🤫995🤫 ... Gambling ... Movies & TV ... Music ... Hobbies ... Lulz ... Food & Travel ... Daily Texan ... Business and Markets ... Cloak Room ... Help ... For Sale ... Board Discussion ... Subscribe!... Donate!... Advertise... COOKIE MONSTER!

×
×
  • Create New...