100-Car Pile Up on Hwy 99 S of Fresno

[stopbush]

Massive Pileup Closes California Freeway

GARANCE BURKE | November 4, 2007 07:42 AM EST |


FRESNO, Calif. — More than 100 cars and trucks crashed on a fog-shrouded freeway Saturday, killing at least two people and injuring dozens more, the California Highway Patrol said.

Eighteen big rigs were involved in the massive pileup on Highway 99 just south of Fresno as patches of dense fog obscured visibility on the heavily traveled roadway, CHP officials said.

"It looked like something out of a movie, walking up and seeing all the cars mangled and crushed," CHP Officer Paul Solorzano Jr. said.

A 5-year-old boy and a 26-year-old man traveling in separate vehicles were killed in the chain-reaction collisions around 7:45 a.m., he said.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20071104/freeway-pileup/


I moved to Fresno two years ago (BIG mistake - I don't recommend Fresno to anyone) and I've found that drivers around here have a peculiar way of dealing with foggy conditions:

they TAILGATE!

It's true. The worse the fog, the closer they sit on your ass.

I'm not at all surprised by this pile up, especially on that stretch of 99 where 85+mph is the norm. I'd guess that most drivers involved in the pile-up were doing at least 60mph, even with visibility at a lousy 2 feet.

[CrispyQ]

1. We rarely have fog in Colorado, but we do have icy & snow packed roads on occasion,

& I too have noticed that people don't slow down nor do they leave appropriate space between cars. It's frustrating to have a decent amount of space between you & the car in front of you only to have some asshole move over into that space. :banghead:

[eleny]

3. Our black ice and ground blzzards scare the bejeezus out of me

[hlthe2b]

6. We do have it in places... :Halloween blizzard several years back

I had to get from Ft. COllins to the Denver airport-- due to a death in the family-- and waited for what I thought was the worst of the storm to die down. The snow had finally stopped for several hours. It wasn't the ice or big snowbanks of snow that was the problem. It was the 2 feet of visability between Loveland and Longmont, blanketed in heavy, heavy fog. Scariest ride of my life....Once you started, you just had to keep going, as you could not safely turn around and there was nowhere to pull over. If you stopped, you'd likely get rear-ended.

[fizzgig]

19. we don't get fog here much

but when we do, it is terrifying to drive because people don't know how to deal with it (i'm in northern colorado).

i can only imagine what that drive would have been like.

[ronnykmarshall]

2. I hate that Tule fog.

I grew up in Bakersfield and there were times it was so bad they closed school. Well, maybe that's not a GOOD example.

[stopbush]

7. Yep. BTW - it's not just me who thinks people tailgate because of the fog.

I asked a Fresno native about this and they said, "yes, because it's easier to know where the road is if you can see the taillights on the car in front of you."

That twisted logic will get your car twisted in a pile up.

[hlthe2b]

9. That's what I thought they were doing...

Having driven in that kind of fog, I can understand the urge, but only if people slow way way way down, like 35 miles per hour or less.

[CrispyQ]

27. But why in the hell don't they slow down?

Tailgating & going fast is an accident about to happen.

People love to drive fast, conditions be damned. I refuse to travel in a car with some of my family members, they drive so awfully. My mother used to get pissed cuz I'd put my seatbelt on. :eyes:

[bluerum]

4. we are fighting them over there so that we don't have to fight them here,,,

Oh,,, wrong sound bite. Now where is that infrastructure bill that I vetoed,,,,

[itsrobert]

5. Another big pile up on California Freeway involving Big Rigs since the Mexican Truckers started

driving the highways. I wonder if people can put 2 and 2 together?

[stopbush]

8. Big pile-ups on CA highways are a long-standing tradition.

If the Mexicans are involved, it's only because they've embraced an American tradition...like celebrating Thanksgiving.

[XemaSab]

10. This has little or nothing to do with Mexicans...

Well, okay, in the Valley there were probably Mexicans INVOLVED in the crash, but HUGH accidents happen in Tule fog every couple years.

The accident investigators say it will take months to figure out what happened.

[Melinda]

11. So how do you explain the 150+ pileup on I-5 almost 2 yrs ago?

Agenda much? :eyes:

[bluerum]

15. Yeah,,, mexicans. Burn em I say! Off with their heads!

[JVS]

16. 2+2= coincidence? Or are Mexican truck-drivers bringing a shroud of fog onto our highways..

to hide their nefarious deeds?

[AlCzervik]

22. you can't so why would anyone else?

[nadinbrzezinski]

25. California = pileups

no mexican trucks needed

By the way thanks for showing both your racism and ignorance as the program has been stopped

[treestar]

28. Is that you, Lou Dobbs?

That highway has had similar accidents before.

[Melinda]

12. I grew up in Fresno, and don't know it anymore at all... it's become like Visalia...

a modeled town of Stepford wives. Sacramento's culture is much more conducive to liberal life, and even closer to you there is the small town of Hanford. Come check us out some time. :)

[stopbush]

29. Not really.

At least Visalia has a downtown with a bit of charm. Fresno's downtown is a model of urban blight, save for the handful of sterile new government buildings that have gone up in the past 10 years.

The biggest business in downtown Fresno are bail bondsmen. No joke. They're on every corner, sometimes, right next to each other.

Our Mayor Alan Autry (yep - the actor from Grace Under Fire is our mayor) has grandiose visions of revitalizing downtown. His recent efforts have included guaranteeing a $15MM loan to the local museum to cover its renovation when their own fund-raising efforts fell horribly short, a current plan to spend $30MM to buy the bankrupt Running Horse Golf Course and sell it to Donald Trump (the course has never been finished nor opened, and the PGA pulled their planned tournament earlier this year when the thing went to bankruptcy court) and the idea of constructing an artificial river through the downtown to make a walker-friendly river walk area (this in drought-ravaged and water-strapped central CA).

My guess - by next June when the note is due on the $15MM loan, the city will own themselves a museum; by the end of the year, they'll also own a $30MM golf course because they wouldn't take Trump's final offer (which will be a lot less than $30MM); and - thankfully - the city council has already put the kibash on the stupid river project.

They also killed a light rail project that would have done nothing for nobody in Fresno.

I'm surprised we haven't bought the monorail from Springfield.

I see another property tax increase in my future. I wonder why?

Fresno. If you're worried about the end of the world, move here. Everything happens 20-30 years later than in the rest of the country.

[Fridays Child]

13. Check out this amazing satellite photo of California Tule fog.

I had to resize it but the original is at http://tinyurl.com/2bm9ft.

[Melinda]

14. So beautiful in a haunting kind of way, and Lake Tahoe just pops out.

Thanks for posting this. I've manuevered through this fog all my life, but have never seen the "above ground" view. It's actually lovely. :)

[nadinbrzezinski]

26. Now THAT is impresive

[EFerrari]

17. A trucker saved my @ss on that road.

Between being sleepy and the fog, I was about to go into oncoming traffic. And yeah, the tailgating is WORSE than the fog!

[B Calm]

18. I drove my big rig in a heavy fog last week. You'd be surprised at

how many four wheelers were driving without their headlights on! Don't people know it makes them more visible to other drivers? Please turn on your headlights when its foggy, raining, and snowing! You woould be surprised how had it is to see in your mirrors a white colored car passing you when it's snowing. THINK PEOPLE THINK.. Use Common Sense!!

[Buns_of_Fire]

20. For those (like me) not from California, here's the NOAA writeup...

http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/hnx/newslet/winter00/fogseason.htm

Let's be careful out there...

[sutz12]

21. It's not the tailgating, it's the speed....

When visibility is low, it's nice to be able to see the guy ahead of you, just not at 80mph. If everybody would slow down to a reasonable speed in zero visibility, like 10 mph, it would be just fine. :shrug:

[B Calm]

23. Trust me.. If you are doing 10 mph, you will be the reason why the pile up

happened! I agree 80 mph is ridiculous, but then so is 10 mph!

[lovuian]

24. 100 cars unbelievable we really need Mass transit

this is crazy