Snow is a fact of life for much of the US, and it can make driving a nightmare, whether it’s snow piling up where it normally doesn’t, or just the fact that driving in snow is inherently more dangerous than driving on dry asphalt. Northern Kentucky just had a 41-car pileup.
So, in the spirit of science, we dug out five videos showing just how bad snow pile-ups can get.
#5) Colorado Springs and the 20-Car Pileup
We’re mentioning this for two reasons: one, it gives you an idea of how treacherous snow is, even for drivers who spent a lot of time tooling around in the stuff, and two, this is one accident, in one location, out of several that rang in the New Year last year for Coloradans. That’s just not a good way to start the year!
#4) Great Falls and the Long Pile-Up
This one makes the grade not because anybody got hurt, but because of the sheer length. It’s like this: one car spins out of control, due to losing traction or some other weather related reason, forcing others near it to brake. Then they spin out of control, forcing others to brake or possibly not catching them in time and caused a rear-end accident. And so on, and so forth, until you’ve got a chain reaction that can literally span for miles. Fortunately, again, nobody was hurt…but that was sheer luck.
#3) 15 Car Pile-up…After Pile-Up…After Pile-Up…
This video focuses on one crash in particular, as it has the most cars involved, but as they mention early on, this particular stretch of I-90 saw more than twenty crashes in a single day thanks to the white stuff falling down from the sky…and most of them were pile-ups, several in the double digits of vehicles. It’s good to remember that just because there’s one accident doesn’t mean the rest of us are off the hook.
#2) It Takes One Idiot To Ruin Everything
Sometimes, of course, these pile-ups are not caused exclusively by the weather. Here’s a good example: one fool loses control of his car and manages to get into…let’s see here…we lost count. Suffice to say he ran up his premiums by a huge amount before he even manages to get a block, and probably had to skid his way away from the angry mob demanding his insurance information.
#1) And Sometimes It’s Multiple Idiots
We at SafeAuto would like to take a moment to beseech you, the American driver, to use the most valuable tool you can to save your car and your money, the one that sits between your ears. If there’s been an ice storm, and you look down the bottom of an icy hill, and you see a massive knot of cars all slammed into each other at the bottom of said hill…
For Pete’s sake, don’t drive down the hill!
