Video of horrific pile up on I81 in Pennsylvania 3/25/22

[OlongJohnson]

If any of ya'll ever find yourself in this situation--bystander to any sort of accident at all in traffic on an interstate--stay off on the shoulder, remain in your vehicle, and call 911. There is nothing you can do for the people inside the cars until the scene can be controlled, and you are putting yourself at risk and complicating the scene. But if you can remain calm and communicate well, you can save lives by helping pinpoint the location of the accident, deconflict it from any additional accidents (so we know if there are multiple scenes), and provide information on number of victims, extrication, etc.

If you need convincing: We had an accident on our local interstate. One vehicle wound up center lane of the opposing side. A passing truck driver stopped to render aid--in the lane of traffic. A second truck collided with his stopped truck. The driver of the initial passenger car was killed instantly. The Good Samaritan, out on foot and with the other driver, was torn in half vertically and hopefully died instantly.

Yes. There are crashes where several vehicles have already made contact, people are out and milling around, and a big truck comes through the lot. On the other hand, being inside a passenger vehicle when the big truck comes through isn't necessarily a good outcome, either.

To me, it's about not being on the X. If the best you can do by getting out of your car is to get into the gutter at the bowling alley, you're probably better off in the car. However, if you realistically can unass the X and get away from a space where bad things are likely to happen, it's not necessarily a bad idea to do so.

[Wise_A]

Yes. There are crashes where several vehicles have already made contact, people are out and milling around, and a big truck comes through the lot. On the other hand, being inside a passenger vehicle when the big truck comes through isn't necessarily a good outcome, either.

To me, it's about not being on the X. If the best you can do by getting out of your car is to get into the gutter at the bowling alley, you're probably better off in the car. However, if you realistically can unass the X and get away from a space where bad things are likely to happen, it's not necessarily a bad idea to do so.

I'm talking about being a bystander, rather than involved. Involved--too many variables. Although I personally think that modern cars are so ungodly safe there's no way it's safer outside than in. Yeah, you might still get killed inside, but a lot more things can kill you outside.

As a bystander, just the simple fact that being inside protects you from flying debris that can kill you is reason-enough to stay inside.

[0ddl0t]

[GearFondler]

That's my companies acetylene trailer he plowed into... Our driver was banged up but okay. I was driving up about 6 hours behind him and was able to detour around that mess. I went back past it southbound a few hours ago and they were still pulling cars and trucks out.

Notice the dummy standing in the middle of the road who jumps out of the way... Can't tell if he survived or not.

[HeavyDuty]

Way, way, WAY too f’in fast for conditions.

[blues]

The only time I literally couldn't see a thing in front of me was on a motorcycle on I-49 in Louisiana heading up toward Shreveport, (but still way south), in driving rain with a tornado heading my way from the west.

It was gut wrenching...with nowhere to go to escape...and not being able to see if I was going to run up the rear end of a semi.

Remember it like it was yesterday...

[hufnagel]

looks like to fast for conditions, but given that anything above a crawl could have been too fast for a truck that big.

note: all times are after looking at the footage several times, so I know what i'm looking for, and what it is.
0:15 you can see something off to the right shoulder
0:17 first sign of a vehicle still on the travel path
0:18 yea that's a wrecked car
0:19 that's a truck in the left ditch
0:20 road's visibly obstructed
0:21 driver shouts
0:23 contact with pickup

so at best, times to collision:
8 seconds from first visible object (but no I.D.)
6 seconds from first identifiable vehicle
5 seconds from seeing it's wrecked
4 seconds truck in the ditch opposite side
3 seconds road's closed
throw in human reaction times, and it looks like he started braking action at 2 seconds

the truck people in here can correct my assumptions, but it seems like a bunch of sites (notably, all lawyer shingle pages) say @ 65mph an 80k# truck needs 525ft to stop, in dry conditions. (note: apparently there's regs regarding this, and they were changed at some point, but I'm not going down that rabbit hole for now.)
i'm going to ASSume for this incident, he was traveling at 60mph (88fps), @ max weight, just to make some math easier. At that speed, you're covering the stopping distance in about 6 seconds, so I don't think it's implausible to assume he was about 500' from the accident site when the first identifiable car is seen. he was doomed before the first car came into view.

[GearFondler]

looks like to fast for conditions, but given that anything above a crawl could have been too fast for a truck that big.

note: all times are after looking at the footage several times, so I know what i'm looking for, and what it is.
0:15 you can see something off to the right shoulder
0:17 first sign of a vehicle still on the travel path
0:18 yea that's a wrecked car
0:19 that's a truck in the left ditch
0:20 road's visibly obstructed
0:21 driver shouts
0:23 contact with pickup

so at best, times to collision:
8 seconds from first visible object (but no I.D.)
6 seconds from first identifiable vehicle
5 seconds from seeing it's wrecked
4 seconds truck in the ditch opposite side
3 seconds road's closed
throw in human reaction times, and it looks like he started braking action at 2 seconds

the truck people in here can correct my assumptions, but it seems like a bunch of sites (notably, all lawyer shingle pages) say @ 65mph an 80k# truck needs 525ft to stop, in dry conditions. (note: apparently there's regs regarding this, and they were changed at some point, but I'm not going down that rabbit hole for now.)
i'm going to ASSume for this incident, he was traveling at 60mph (88fps), @ max weight, just to make some math easier. At that speed, you're covering the stopping distance in about 6 seconds, so I don't think it's implausible to assume he was about 500' from the accident site when the first identifiable car is seen. he was doomed before the first car came into view.

It's really hard to judge the speed based only on the video footage but he was definitely going too fast for the low visibility and compromised road conditions.
We also don't know how heavy he was. What most regular folks don't realize is that the less weight a big truck has the longer it takes us to stop... Less weight equals less road pressure equals less friction equals longer braking distances. Or the trailer tires just lock up and it comes around the front to say hello.
Big trucks need at least 5 seconds to come to a full stop from 65 mph in the very best conditions.
BTW, that section of 81 is still closed.

[CleverNickname]

Dec 8 2013. 60 car pile up. Was in traffic for 8+ hours. At one point a bag pipe band started walking around playing

So the bagpipers decided to add insult to injury, huh?

[Shotgun]

Sad exposé on how stupid people really are

Darwin damn near got the one guy standing outside of his car, oblivious to the fact that others would be coming behind him.