All my life northerners told me that they're experts at driving in snow. LOL
Substitute Squall for 0 visibility FOG bank that hits when you're driving 65 miles an hour on a crowded interstate and are effectively immediately blinded like someone covered your windshield.
Anybody going 80 mph with any amount of snow are idiots.
It’s like ground fog in CA or one of those sudden blinding rainstorms in Florida.
It comes out of nowhere, and suddenly you can’t see a thing.
There is limit to antilock brakes, everyone driving should explore that in empty parking lots without the parking curbs and speed bumps.
Freezing Fog and Snow Squalls is what makes the I80 corridor dangerous from Chicago to Erie. The flatness of IL, IN, Michigan and Ohio do breed a lot of inattention to drivers who do not realize a 30 foot elevation drop is a valley to cold air rolling down a hill. Once PA is reached drivers have been going 85mph for better than 5 hours on clear march days.
Very cheap Technology can solve this with freezing roadway and bridges signs and a simple If people would just reduce their speed with road temperatures 33 - 25 degrees even snow on the roadway isn’t that big of problem at below 25 degrees.
Northern drivers should know by experience sound, feel, sight if the roads could be freezing.
https://www.rikasensor.com/rk500-55-non-contact-road-condition-sensor.html
With multipurpose signs variable speed limits could be established. A 45 mph speed limit through this area would probably not have saved people from collisions in these conditions, would have reduced heavy accidents. A 35 mph, stopped traffic and ice ahead warning would have made this a non event.
With each mile of interstate costing somewhere in the range of million dollars per year to maintain and lifecycle, 60k in signs and sensor tied to IoT in the vechicles is cheaper than car insurance.
https://blog.midwestind.com/much-cost-maintain-mile-road/
https://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/provencountermeasures/variable-speed-limits.cfm
This also proves there is a place for Waze and CB radios in everyone’s earshoot.
We had a dusting in the area, but in that small area near Minersville it was a snow squall. It was blowing, not landing much. Emergency alerts -- at least three in a short period -- were on my phone but if you're not by that mountain you'd think it was no big deal.
It comes on fast. We live in Western Pennsylvania. Several days ago my husband and I were driving home. It was partly sunny to overcast one minute, and a minute later we were hit with a snow squall that greatly lowered our viability. Thank goodness we were following the speed limit and not much traffic. Literally, within a minute or two, it was completely gone and the sun was shining. It came and went so fast and no snow on the ground.