Snow Squall Causing Terrifying Accidents In Pennsylvania

[FelineOverlord]

LIVE FOOTAGE

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[dalton99a]

1. At least three people died

[dem4decades]

2. For God's sake, never get out and stand by your car under those circumstances. If you get out, get

as far away as you can, off the road and up traffic from your car. That one guy was standing behind his car and his car was hit, luckily his car spun around him (it glanced him) but at least it didn't crush him. One of my college roommates was killed outside his car after a minor accident.

[honest.abe]

3. OMG. That is horrific.

That dude standing next to his car nearly got nailed. Why on earth was the person who crashed into his car driving so fast in such dangerous conditions? Crazy.

[ARPad95]

6. If this happened on I-81 in the Poconos, then there's no slowing down on a slippery snow

covered highway going DOWN a mountainside.

Brakes are useless when the roads freeze and there's a sheet of black ice. Applying brakes on ice may even make it worse for the driver. Just put the car in the lowest gear and hope it slows down enough to maintain control.

[honest.abe]

9. Well, I think given the conditions everyone should have been driving at a slow speed.

It appeared that person was at least 40 mph. Way too fast for the conditions.

[ARPad95]

12. It's quite possible the drivers went from clear visibility to very low or no visibility in an

instant during this type of snow storm. No time to slow down even if you're already driving cautiously for the weather conditions. Going downhill makes it even more likely for things to go crazy.

[honest.abe]

13. Ok yes that is a possibility.

[Tree-Hugger]

17. True, but...

I am from Pennsylvania. You can go from sunshine and blue skies to a white out within seconds. No exaggeration. That is why snow squalls are so dangerous. Today, in my area of PA, we have had fast, hard-hitting squalls all day and many happened while it was still sunny with partially blue skies.

[BlackSkimmer]

4. Very frightening.

I’d be getting as far away from the road as possible.

[bucolic_frolic]

5. Maybe they should juice some driver ed into middle age drivers instead of just the 95 year olds

If they can step away from raising their own salaries, expanding the secretarial pool, and authorizing more limo rides.

[Moostache]

7. That is a clear illustration of one of my pet peeves...

4x4 wheel drive DOES NOT HELP YOU STOP!!!!

The speeds those people were driving heading into a low/no visibility region was CRAZY...especially the tractor-trailers, that first one hit with NO BRAKES at all.

Sorry to the families that are broken tonight, their loss will never be lessened or understood.

[EarlG]

8. Holy crap

I’m visiting an old friend in New York State for a few days and was literally on that exact stretch of road yesterday. I’m glad I decided to travel yesterday instead of today.

[2naSalit]

11. Indeed!

Timing is important.

Once upon a time I was traveling with a friend, we were crossing half of Wyoming in winter, icy and cold with a storm coming in on the continental divide as we approached. We stopped for gas while it was still daylight and clear but for some reason the ignition key went in upside down or something and got stuck such that we could not start the car after filling up! It was my friend's car, older Buick. After about an hour wresting the thing out of the slot, we were over 100 miles from a locksmith, we were able to get on our way.

Close to an hour down the road there was a major pile up that shut down I80 for hours. We were lucky that there was a back route we could get to as a detour. Had we not had the incident with the key at the gas stop, we would have been in the middle of that wreck up on the divide. We were thankful we had such a small problem compared to the folks we were going down the road with who didn't stop for gas.

Glad you missed that whole mess!

[IcyPeas]

10. wow that is some footage that guy got!

[doc03]

14. That one tanker looks like it has some kind of compressed gas nt

[FakeNoose]

15. I wasn't there but I'm pretty sure this was a sudden white-out

This can happen without notice, you're driving along at normal speed, along with the other traffic. Suddenly you come into a deep valley with a heavy snow squall and thick fog, and you can't see a thing. It happens that fast.

I think this guy pulled over, stopped and got out of his car. He didn't realize that the vehicles behind him were also going to hit the same white-out, and maybe they weren't smart enough to slow down and pull over.

In this case the problem wasn't the snow on the road, so much as the snow and fog in the air that was blocking the drivers' vision. I've seen white-outs on Interstate 80 and on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Very scary!

[Tree-Hugger]

18. It was

We've been having frequent snow squalls throughout the day all throughout PA. My own area has had several NWS warnings for squalls. Sunny one second, white out the next. Sometimes, both sun and snow concurrently.

[Ron Green]

16. This is the world we made.

A transportation system operated almost entirely by amateur drivers, piloting machines designed to maximize comfort and convenience, and to minimize safety for anyone outside the vehicle. All this on roads designed to move as much traffic as possible as quickly as possible.

We’re perfectly willing to accept 100 deaths every day to maintain this system.

[Hortensis]

19. Yup. I'm always amazed at how few people die or are gravely

injured in traffic accidents. By far most accidents don't happen at all, presumably because people are sufficiently afraid of what can happen; and of those that do, the cars most often take most of the damage and protect the occupants.

We all decide for ourselves whether we want to take the real but very small risk. Not everyone who doesn't drive is unable to keep a car; some make other choices.

[FelineOverlord]

20. Dr. Oz Is On It!

"closely monitoring"

Link to tweet

[FelineOverlord]

21. Snow Squalls Near Philly

Link to tweet

[peggysue2]

22. Had a weather alert come across on the phone

We didn't get the snow in my area of Delaware Co (outside Philly) but the wind was ferocious and the temperature dropped like a rock. I'd just come out of ACME with the week's groceries and thought my hands would freeze off loading my order in the car.

Bizarre.

[Talitha]

23. As he was recording, you could HEAR more and more crashes happening!

Wow... just wow.