It’s amazing how people jump on the bandwagon and condemn. Actually it’s pretty disgusting. None of the people commenting know the circumstance but by god, those involved in this accident ‘had it coming to them’ for being so stupid as to travel during this period of time.
Exactly. Whiteouts come out of nowhere. Unless the posters were riding shotgun in one of the vehicles, they have NO IDEA what actually occurred.
Talk about judgmental.
I've only had this hit me full force one time fortunately. I was driving from Atlanta to Ottawa, ON in early January. Nissan Xterra, Offroad model with BFG AT tires so wasn't particularly worried about snow capabilities.
IIRC the towns correctly, at Syracuse, NY there were flurries and accumulation showing up. Watertown, NY was the destination and I had a hotel reservation lined up.
North of Syracuse, snow got heavier and eventually closed down to a single track in the right lane. No problem. Running 40-45 mph with the semis, no one with any brains passing anybody.
About 10-15 miles from my Watertown, NY destination, I ran into a wall of lake effect snow. Visibility slammed down to <100ft. My reaction? Get Off This Damn Highway.
Immediately, went by 1 overpass and semis already had it occupied. Kept going. Visibility dropped further. Drove a few miles more and a second exit showed up plus a Watertown exit was on the sign. Semis fully occupied the exit shoulder and when I got to the stop sign saw that they filled up the the entry ramp shoulders as well. Still no place to safely stop.
Sign said turn right to Watertown so I turned right and flipped on 4wd. Duh, hindsight is marvelous. Wish I had just figgered out a way to stop where I was. Turned out this routed me towards the old, pre-interstate highway to Watertown. Snow towards 8-12in and building. Never needed the locker.
I traveled about 10 miles at 5-10mph before breaking out of the snow wall. Most of time, I had rarely had an idea where the road was looking toward. I oriented by looking right to see the ditch, fence line, reflectors, anything. Only saw 1 other vehicle and that was 50-75ft away before his lights penetrated through the snow.
Broke out of the snow wall near the Watertown city limits, made it to the hotel and and had a meal and beverage at the bar. The morning arrived bright and sunny, roads cleared and smooth driving other than a couple hours at Canadian customs.-
As far as winter traveling, I was fully prepared I think. Proper kind of vehicle & tires, clothes, -20F sleeping bag, water & food. All check down to -40F antifreeze. Did I make the right decisions? Maybe, maybe not. White knuckle experience I hope no one else gets into.
Long distance driving in winter snow country is not a trivial thing. It’s worse if on a schedule going from point A to B.