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12-02-2018, 04:59 AM
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Learn From This: Iowa Interstate Accident

This video is of a 70 car pileup on an Iowa interstate highway last week.

If you have young people in your life, consider showing them this and going over how drive in winter conditions - increasing distance between vehicles, steering ina a skid, where to go in an impending highway accident, whether or not to get out of your car (usually not), and most importantly... the factor of speed in braking in icy conditions.

The accident starts in the upper right corner of the screen.

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12-02-2018, 06:06 AM
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Re: Learn From This: Iowa Interstate Accident

What a tragedy ! Some of the later arrivals must have noticed something was wrong yet they didn't even try to slow down.
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12-02-2018, 07:48 AM
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Re: Learn From This: Iowa Interstate Accident

Hi

Unfortunately such stupidity is not uncommon here in the UK.
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12-02-2018, 11:42 AM
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Re: Learn From This: Iowa Interstate Accident

Originally Posted by swimfeeders ->
Hi

Unfortunately such stupidity is not uncommon here in the UK.
Must be more than 20 years ago now when lordruthio commuted up to Newbury and there was a massive pile up on the M4 in the fog.
I remember there were over 100 vehicles involved and a dozen or so deaths. Horrific.
It was in the morning so commuters rushing to get to work I suppose.
The burnt out wrecks littered the roadside for many days.
I think I find fog the scariest.
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12-02-2018, 04:28 PM
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Re: Learn From This: Iowa Interstate Accident

The speed at which most vehicles were travelling was frightening - and no-one seemed to have their lights on. Why no hazard lights flashing on the early arrivals either?
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12-02-2018, 10:57 PM
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Re: Learn From This: Iowa Interstate Accident

Originally Posted by Sweetsue ->
The speed at which most vehicles were travelling was frightening - and no-one seemed to have their lights on. Why no hazard lights flashing on the early arrivals either?
That's what I thought too - unless the filming is so obscured by falling snow any headlights don't show up?

Driving far to fast too in my opinion.

Don't they have column lighting on US motorways/highways?
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13-02-2018, 03:03 PM
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Re: Learn From This: Iowa Interstate Accident

Daytime running lights (front only) are standard many new cars but not all. Many mid-range to upscale models have automatic lights front and back, but many people may not have had them either switched to that position or the condtions weren't dark of them to trigger. On cars with no automatic lights, most people do not turn them on in good weather.

The cost of street lights (column lights) is prohibitive for the nearly 50,000 miles of interstate highway (high speed, multiple-lane, fully-divided) so they are usually just installed near exits and high traffic areas. This accident was in a rural area, so I expect that the only lights were right at the exit where the accident began but were not installed where the cars/trucks backed up.

I can't tell whether people turned on their hazard lights once they were hit (most likely many were dealing with airbags and shock) but I have driven enough in these conditions to know that the visibility was probably very low. All the more reason the drivers should have been driving much slower.
 

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