Sunday, January 06, 2008

Slipping and Sliding

Here are a couple of pictures taken last Friday evening (28 Dec) of The Bug being pulled around my sister's front yard. There's no doubt as to whether or not she was having fun!




There was a lot of slipping and sliding going on around this area today, though not intentionally ~ including me. Warmer temperatures (44F this afternoon) made for a lot of melting and dense fog. In fact, we are under a dense fog advisory until 12pm Monday. Visibilty at noon was barely a block at times, making it difficult to see cars in front of you, even when they had their lights on (and yes ~ there were some idiots out there who did not have lights on). I slipped on some ice at the bus stop and bruised my left palm and left calf, jarred my elbow, and twisted the knee a bit. Yes, I'm okay, though really tired and a little sore tonight. (And wouldn't you know the rude people upstairs just started laundry at 10:15pm, so there'll be no sleeping for quite a while. Grrr!)

My incident was nothing compared to the mess on I-90. Two chain reaction accidents led to multi-car pile-ups involving at least 100 vehicles, shutting down the Interstate for much of the night. One lane in each direction has now been re-opened, and they anticipate having all lanes open for the morning commute.

The first accident happened about 2:30pm just south of the Beltline (Hwy 12-18) near Hwy N, three miles down the road. My sister and BIL were stuck in the traffic coming back from Ho-Chunk Casino, but thankfully were not involved in the accidents. They were able to safely exit I-90 and detour around the affected section of highway.

Sadly, there were two fatalities, and three others with life-threatening injuries. About 50 people suffered minor injuries, with most being treated and released from area hospitals. Staff are standing by tonight in the event there are more injuries, but hopefully this incident gets peoples' attention and they slow down. Madison Metro was on the scene to provide a warm shelter for those involved, and transportation to the Wingate Hotel where the Red Cross was offering assistance to those in need. The Salvation Army and local restaurants also provided assistance.

From Channel 8 news in La Crosse: "The preliminary investigation shows that some motorists were traveling at least 70 mph ~ above the 65 mph speed limit. Steeber says with the foggy conditions, people should have slowed down."

Gee, ya think??

Please, please people: slow down, turn your lights on, and stay alert (and off your damn cell phone!) if you have to be on the roads in these conditions. With the warmer temperatures, melting snow, and rain moving in, dense fog is likely to be with us throughout the week. Don't let yourself become a statistic!

Local coverage:
Channel 15 News
Channel 27 News
Channel 3 News
Wisconsin State Journal


4 comments:

Shammickite said...

The only safe thing to do in those conditions is to stay at home!! We are having similar weather here in S Ontario, Canada. Lots of fog. I had to go out for a few minutes yesterday and it was really hard to see if the traffic lights were red or green, had to be really close to see, and then... oh it's red... slam on the brakes!
Stay safe.

Annie said...

Thanks for the news about the dreadful fog and bad accident. I will, on my travels, watch the weather closely and surely will pull into a motel if there's any reason to fear. I'll be arriving in Madison on Tuesday I think. Oh boy, I can hardly wait.

Jana said...

The bug is adorable. :)

That's aweful about the accident. I hate driving in fog...or maybe that's just I hate driving. You never know what other idiots are driving as well.

Heather said...

Ex~ Oh, definitely! If you don't have to be out in weather like this, the best thing is to stay put. Hope you stay safe up there in Canada!

Annie~ Welcome to our rain-drenched world! At least there's no dense fog today, that's something at least.

Jana~ Thank you - she definitely had fun. And so true about not knowing what kind of idiots are out there! Hated coming home through the dense fog last night, and I wasn't even driving. At least on the back roads we didn't have to worry too much about hitting (or being hit by) someone else.