How do these 80 car pileups happen?

This. ^^^^
And a CB radio. Will never understand not having one in your truck.
Always appreciated those cars that had the bright taillight switch for visibility.
Reduced speed will also lengthen your time to react or at least the damage if you can't.
Thick fog is the worst enemy imho because while visibility is down it's not usually slick so guys hammer down blindly.
Freezing rain and/or heavy snow (whiteout) are next.
Only way to reduce risk is park till conditions improve.

 

There was one in San Antonio on I-35 just inside loop 1604 around 20 or so years ago. Bright sunny day. Sun was setting behind a big cloud and when the cloud quickly moved the sun was so bright on the horizon it was instant blindness for everyone running the south bound stretch that actually goes west for a mile or two. I believe the count on that one was almost 70 and that included the service road along that stretch.

 

How do 80 car pile up happen?

The easy answer is…

… one car at a time.

 

That may have been the one I was thinking about. However, for some reason, I was thinking it happened on Ranger mtn.

 

As I've stated on here often, I tend to park when conditions are yucky. Nothing I'm ever going to haul is worth risking my safety to me. Fortunately, my company doesn't push drivers to drive in bad conditions. They'd actually rather you park yourself somewhere safe and let them deal with a late load instead of an accident.
I do run into a dilemma on occasion. There's times when roads aren't good, but I'd be OK to run on them. Except, I'm going to be going 35, 40 maybe 45mph maximum while everyone else is out there tearing along at 60 and 65mph. Way too fast for me (and I think for most of them to and they're just being reckless. Exceptions exist to those who've lived and driven in those conditions for many years I guess. But the vast majority are simply going way too fast for the conditions). And, generally, when roads are like that, only one runnable lane with the left lane is much worse shape than the right lane. So, those daredevils want to get in that worse lane and tear past me in an even more wreckless manner. So, I actually become something of a hazard to the other drivers. My only solution, thus far, has been to just go ahead and park it anyway. Making a hazard of myself, even though to my estimation, I'm doing the sane thing, well, I just don't think it a good idea.
As for fog, I haven't had too much of a problem with it as of yet. I was raised on the coast of Texas which has patch fog. It'll be completely clear and suddenly you'll hit a patch of fog so thick, you can't see more than 1 strip on the road. Then 1/4, 1/2 mile down the road it gets completely clear again. Anyway, I'll appropriately slow down in fog, but if it gets so thick I can't safely stop myself in the distance I have visibility for, I'll find a place to park till it clears up.
While I tend to sound like I'll pull over and park at the first sight of a single snowflake. I'm really not that timid. But, I do know my tolerance for sub-par driving conditions is considerably less than for many other drivers. However, it isn't my soul in their truck and I can't control them anyway. It is however, my soul in my truck and completely in my control. In the end, when I get that gut feeling that says, this isn't safe, you need to park it. I'll trust it and stop at the next available place to safely stop.

 

In Iowa, on non-interstate highways, there are, or used to be, signs stating trucks must keep 300 ft spacing. That would seem a safer following distance than what you see on the interstates.

 

Yup, sometimes I’m not worried about “if” I can drive in it but do I trust everyone else out there.

It’s kind of like driving on New Years Eve… I know I can do it but why deal with others.

 

How does that make sense? You seem to think insurance carriers want more claims…..Why?….With the advent of nuclear verdicts over the past 20 years that’s just not anywhere near the case. Over my career I saw numerous small, what should have been property damage only claims blow up and end up costing policy limits. Given the political climate in most states, rate levels are always behind the incurred loss curve, so you are always playing catch-up. I underwrote trucking biz for 40+ years, and the reason the trucking insurance market has gotten so small, is those carriers that didn’t understand the biz, charged to little, got their head handed to them and had to withdraw.

Progressive, and Berkshire, who I worked for tried to make a 2-5 % underwriting profit……..not always possible, but that’s a thin margin for putting assets up. Sure, carriers make investment income also, which helps reward the shareholders in the long term, but not the short term.

The only players who benefit are the attorneys