I-94 in Michigan still closed after huge pileup

[Faygo Kid]

Source: Detroit News

The state police say both sides of Interstate 94 in southwestern Michigan may be opened by late afternoon Saturday.

"There have been a lot of estimations over the last 24-hours," said Lt. David Wood of the Michigan State Police Saturday. "I can say we hope to have it open between 5 and 5:30 p.m. today, hopeful before dark."

Both sides of Interstate 94 in southwestern Michigan remain closed as crews remove acid and tow away vehicles stuck in an extraordinary pileup on the snowy highway

Wood said most of the 193 vehicles including dozens of semis, involved in the pile up have been removed. . .

Read more: Linhttp://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2015/01/10/michigan-still-closed-huge-pileup/21551947/k to source

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Brutal. While most of the world undergoes unprecedented heating, there is no doubt that climate change has driven the cold the past two winters to the Midwest and Eastern United States. Not unexpected, but tough to go through.

[jakeXT]

1. When will people learn how to film with a cell phone?

[CANDO]

15. When I see someone doing the vertical....

I point out to them it's meant to be done horizontally. Some don't care and are offended for even mentioning it to them.

[jakeXT]

19. Local news stations sometimes mention it, usually when they want their viewers to send video in /nt

[VScott]

22. Shit heads driving waaaay too fast for the conditions.

[Siwsan]

2. A friend of mine just sent me this, on FB. Pretty funny

[NBachers]

3. As an ex-Kalamazooan who's done his share of donuts . . .

[Spitfire of ATJ]

4. The unintentional ones are better than coffee....

It was in the late 70s. A major blizzard was hitting. It was the kind of thing where you clear off your front window, then do the back and in that time you have another inch on the front. I was in a hurry to get home. I was on Gull Road when I turned onto Sprinkle too fast.

This taught me to always wear a seatbelt because I was thrown away from the controls on a bench style seat and I was glued to the passenger door helpless from the g force as my car spun around and around and finally came to a rest in a ditch before it hit the trees.

Good thing I was alone on the road too.

[NBachers]

8. Getting off from Domino's Pizza near Western Michigan University late at night,

I'd sometimes take Gull Road home, where I'd turn off onto N. 37th St., near Gull Lake.

Other times, I'd go down Michigan Avenue toward Galesburg, and come up N. 37th St. the back way.

I remember nights when the only tracks down the road were the ones I left. Once I drove my drafty '52 Plymouth with no heat up N. 37th St. from Galesburg; the flurries were so thick against my windshield that I was driving pretty much on instinct and memory. Fortunately, nothing happened, and I got home safely.

When Gull Lake froze over, people would drive their cars out on it and do stunts. Some cars didn't quite make it back; they went through the ice to a watery grave.

Good thing your passenger door didn't fly open and eject you. That would've had unfortunate consequences.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

16. This was back it the days when people said they wanted to be "thrown clear" in an accident.

[notadmblnd]

7. You really don't know you're alive until you hit a patch of ice and

spin out on I-75 heading south to Detroit. Then you wonder how you made it out alive without a scratch on yourself or your car.

[NBachers]

9. I remember driving down I-94 from Chicago to Kalamazoo one winter day-

The road was clear of snow, but there were patches of ice that I'd drive over. Somehow, I thought I could do 70 or more down the highway, and I'd be over the ice patches before anything happened. I was in a hurry to get back.

I don't know how I made it back alive, but when I look back on it, it sure was a foolish thing to do. Some make it through the immortality of our youth; some don't. I guess I was one of the lucky ones.

[notadmblnd]

11. Me too. 2xs

last time- my car finally came to a stop after spinning out over all 4 lanes and it's rear end gently touched the cement median. When I got back on the road, I was truly amazed that not a single car or truck had slammed into me.

But that posting was right, the attitude here in regards to icy roads is dead on.

I'm glad we were both lucky.

[NBachers]

12. Somehow, you get your car moving again, spin your way back onto the highway, and off you go.

I moved down to Miami in the middle of a Michigan winter. Now I'm in San Francisco. I don't miss kicking those big chunks of frozen gravel slush off the rear panels of my car. Or dodging them in the road when they've fallen off someone else's car and go sliding down the street.

[jakeXT]

13. Some people are way too enthusiastic with spinning back

[Spitfire of ATJ]

20. People who got good driving on snow find this stuff funny....

Here's a clue, you don't just pump the brakes, you pump the gas.

[notadmblnd]

14. and I thought I was the only one that did that.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

18. As long as you maintain speed and direction a straight patch of ice is nothing....

If it's on a curve, that's a problem. If it's cold enough the slightest dusting of snow acts like a sprinkling of sand on the ice.

[jakeXT]

5. Michigan I-94: Equipment issues, cold weather stalling highway reopening

GALESBURG, MI -- Cold weather is affecting hazardous waste equipment on the scene of I-94, delaying the clean-up process and pushing back the freeway's reopening.

Police are no longer sure as to when the freeway will reopen, though the Michigan Department of Transportation is reporting 6:00 p.m. at the earliest.

"The valve on the pump froze," said First Lt. James Coleman of the Michigan State Police Coldwater Post. "That's what's delaying things -- we're waiting on the company to bring (replacement) equipment."

Coleman said the formic acid has yet to be drained from the charred hull of a crashed semi tanker. Until the material is drained, MDOT and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality cannot asses the road's safety for traveling motorists.

http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2015/01/michigan_i-94_equipment_issues.html#incart_river

[amandabeech]

6. 193 vehicles, including a semi full of fireworks?

This is outstanding even for Michigan. The only possible added touch would have been a half hour of thunder ice storm to put that nice glaze all over everything.

[NBachers]

10. And they've got to have some major road damage to repair- not too easy in 12° weather

[amandabeech]

21. Well, at least Michiganders are used to cold weather.

I was when I lived there.

However, materials do not like to be handled in 12 degrees. I imagine that they'll do what they can now--put a bandaid on it, and wait for the spring thaw.

[elias49]

17. Nothing quite like sitting in a 3,000 lb steel sled

and you can't steer it.