One mans opinion on how to prevent another Atlanta

I wonder what Caveman Charlie has to say how to prevent the 100 car pileup in PA? At least Atlanta didn't have one of those.

Veebyes wrote:
Lets see if people pay attention this time & stay put unless there is some sort of medical emergency. They should have long bought whatever supplies that might be needed by now.

Drove 60 miles this morning home from fire station. AMAZINGLY I had NO issues. Only saw one tractor trailer this morning, and it had chains.

Last time...TT's had the interstates blocked 100% and was on road for 25.5 hours. Today...NO TT's and less than an hour and a half.

Very nice

poncho62 wrote:
I know the ice there compounded things, but people need to slow down and use common sense. We get those here to that think because they have a 4x4, they are invincible....not so

Boy ... do you make an outstanding but very subtle point with that statement!!!!!!!!!!

Take a look at the SUV and other vehicle adds on TV and other media. Many, many of them show SUVs and sedans frolicking in the snow like it was nothing. They make big deals out of such "features" on modern vehicles as shift-on-the-fly 4WD or full-time 4WD, automatic stability control, automatic skid control, computer controlled individual wheel torque application, etc., etc..

Physics is physics and the bulk of it affecting a 3000-5000 lb. vehicle on a snow/ice/slush road surface cannot be gotten around with gimmicks on the vehicle.

For example:

I drove my light-in-the-rear rear wheel drive 1967 gimmick-less Mustang 25 miles at night once on a frozen sheet ice freeway where it was so bad that I had to travel at only 10-15 MPH and stay on the top of the road's crown so I wouldn't slide sideways into the ditch and stay in top gear to absolutely minimize torque on the rear wheels. I made it home with common-back-then sense of what physics was .... not with non-existent gimmicks on my dinosaur technology Mustang.

Another time I tried to drive my M&S oversize-tired offroad four wheel drive (with lockup rear differential) GMC pickup very, very slowly on frozen snow-packed small-town sideroads and it scared me to death. I could hardly move the pickup or control it at any speed, but regardless I was indeed able to make it around town with application of maximum common-back-then sense of what physics was.

I think many folks today are depending way too much on gadgetry to keep them safe and sound with only minimum knowledge or experience required or applied on their part. :(

Lets see if people pay attention this time & stay put unless there is some sort of medical emergency. They should have long bought whatever supplies that might be needed by now.

Mind boggling historic ice storm headed for the south. And this is according to the National Weather Service that usually doesn't say things like that. I guess were going to see if anyone learned anything sooner then we though we would.

http://www.mprnews.org/story/2014/02/11/historic-ice-storm?from=hp

wa8yxm wrote:

mlts22 wrote:
There are a lot of jobs that have no sick days whatsoever... That is becoming the norm, not the exception.

Sadly, that is becoming all too true.

The key to preventing major problems is good driving, Slow down, DO NOTHING suddenly and follow at a nice respectable distance, in bad weather like 5 or more seconds behind the person in front of you.

Things that cause accidents: Well we all know about texting and drinking and such, but the fact is SPEED TOO FAST FOR CONDITIONS is a good cause.. The proper speed to drive when texting or drunk is best obtained with the car in PARK (Zero mph) by the way, and in a proper parking spot.

But,,, Well.. I've seen TV shows where the stunt rider subbing for the star rides his motorcycle over the bumper to bumper cars.

I've seen cars on the freeway not much farther apart than that scene.. only doing 70 MPH in the 55 zone. And from the comfort and safety of the office where I used to work, via remote cameras, I've watched this many times.

I think I posted the URL to the cameras up-thread.. Difference between what you see and what I see.... I had a control stick, Tilt, Pan, Zoom, Focus and so on.

If you did nothing suddenly, someone is sure to rearend you.

I know; Iknow. Just couldn't resist.:B

x2. I have gotten to the point where I keep a dash cam running 24/7. I am blown away at how many people are obviously texting (or even watching movies), and that if a police officer had an unmarked vehicle, said officer could get their quota in a matter of minutes.

mlts22 wrote:
There are a lot of jobs that have no sick days whatsoever... That is becoming the norm, not the exception.

Sadly, that is becoming all too true.

The key to preventing major problems is good driving, Slow down, DO NOTHING suddenly and follow at a nice respectable distance, in bad weather like 5 or more seconds behind the person in front of you.

Things that cause accidents: Well we all know about texting and drinking and such, but the fact is SPEED TOO FAST FOR CONDITIONS is a good cause.. The proper speed to drive when texting or drunk is best obtained with the car in PARK (Zero mph) by the way, and in a proper parking spot.

But,,, Well.. I've seen TV shows where the stunt rider subbing for the star rides his motorcycle over the bumper to bumper cars.

I've seen cars on the freeway not much farther apart than that scene.. only doing 70 MPH in the 55 zone. And from the comfort and safety of the office where I used to work, via remote cameras, I've watched this many times.

I think I posted the URL to the cameras up-thread.. Difference between what you see and what I see.... I had a control stick, Tilt, Pan, Zoom, Focus and so on.

CavemanCharlie wrote:
Problem is, that I have met people in my life that use up all there sick days on stupid things and then risk there lives , stupidly, trying to get to work.

There are a lot of jobs that have no sick days whatsoever... That is becoming the norm, not the exception.

CavemanCharlie wrote:
around here if it get too bad the Governor, Sheriff, or local DOT will close the roads If that happens and you don't make it to work I've never heard of a local business that would fire you.

No one along the freeze line closes the roads completely. There are always some routes open.

Frankly, I agree with you - they should actually close the entire road system in these type situations. But no one has the authority or the cojones to do it, try to enforce it.

Yes, we do have people fired for not coming in every time one of these ice storms hits. Always makes the local news, and no one can do anything about it. The unlucky worker doesn't qualify for unemployment either because it is a 'for cause' termination - at least in Texas.

The key seems to always be - if the boss can get to work - all the employees are expected to get there also.

Heck, we even had one employer fire a lady because she showed up for jury duty, didn't skip it. Now that was a funny outcome as the employer had to sit in court all day for 28 straight work days.