On my way to pick up a shop vac and then help a buddy install some work benches in his garage. She was pretty lucky, seemed a lot faster when it happened. I walked down about 80 feet to her car. She was crying and laughing and pretty shaken. No way she was driving out. I called 911 and talked to the highway patrol.

Why would I guess that texting or a cell phone was involved in this.

missed the exit by that much

Yes even here in Minnesota where we have roads like this every year people just can't seem to figure it out.

Luckily, the only damage on one of these slide offs is to your wallet for the tow truck.

When I was in the Navy, we used to patrol I-15 near Idaho Falls with my roommates truck. He had a winch and we’d pull someone out for $20. Beer money.

quote:

Originally posted by mcrimm:
Luckily, the only damage on one of these slide offs is to your wallet for the tow truck.

Indiana now has thick wire rope fences in some of the grassy medians to prevent cars from crossing the median and hitting oncoming traffic. A slide off toward the fence will screw up any part of the car that contacts it. And I've seen cars that hit the fence, got tangled, spun partially and ruined 1/2 or more of the sheetmetal. Damage so extensive I would expect the vehicle to get totalled due to the repair cost.

And of course, if a semi driver falls asleep at the wheel and crosses the median that wire rope isn't going to do much good.

quote:

nd I've seen cars that hit the fence, got tangled,

That's how they're supposed to work. When you hit them it's supposed to grab hold to prevent you from crossing through.

quote:

if a semi driver falls asleep at the wheel and crosses the median that wire rope isn't going to do much good.

It won't stop 100% of anything, but they are designed to catch big trucks too, and do a fair amount of the time.

Wow that's crazy!

quote:

Originally posted by armored:
Why would I guess that texting or a cell phone was involved in this.

I dunno. It was only a few seconds into the video before things went sideways that I was looking along the left shoulder and thinking "that's not where I would be if I was driving" and didn't even finish the thought before it went bad for her. I'd hazard a guess that the slush grabbed her and she over-corrected to the right.

That music was lively though.

quote:

Originally posted by darthfuster:
That music was lively though.

Reminiscent of Marshall Tucker Band's "Heard It In A Love Song". Not positive.

quote:

Originally posted by a1abdj:

That's how they're supposed to work. When you hit them it's supposed to grab hold to prevent you from crossing through.

It won't stop 100% of anything, but they are designed to catch big trucks too, and do a fair amount of the time.

The van driver did a good job on getting over onto the shoulder to give the big rig room to maneuver.

Not open carry, but Blizzacks would of prevented that spin out.

quote:

Marshall Tucker Band's "Heard It In A Love Song"

It is

The person that spun out had gotten over earlier as I did to let oncoming traffic merge. I don't think she thought the plow was in her lane. We had just passed a plow in the right lane. She was pulling away from me and I was thinking what the hell are you doing there's a plow right in front of you. Hard to say, but she was very lucky that went as well as it did.

quote:

Originally posted by Lefty Sig:
And of course, if a semi driver falls asleep at the wheel and crosses the median that wire rope isn't going to do much good.

They work. This was yesterday morning here in western WV on I-64 east.

What am I watching here exactly? She was in the lane that wasn’t cleared as well but so was OP. She obviously lost control and left the roadway but I couldn’t tell from video, was she speeding, did she leave the pavement on the left? I’ve driven behind snow plows hundreds of times, I never get close of course but what was her big mistake? I can’t tell from the video and obviously I’m missing something. Was she trying to pass that car on right?

It was clear they were cleaning up the sides. Really just got a dusting, maybe 1/4". She either didn't think the plow was in her lane, or somehow she didn't see it. I noticed the plow and started to slow down and she just kept going, not sure if she accelerated. When she realized she was coming up on the plow very fast she hammered the brakes and lost control.

She was trucking along, not paying attention to the road way ahead and suddenly realized there was a slower moving snow plow in front of her. She panicked, slammed on the brakes, and lost control. Driver distracted, too fast for conditions, over-braking, overcorrecting, drove off road. There aren't even enough spaces on our accident reports for everything she did wrong there. At least she didn't hit anybody else.

As to the cable barriers in the median...they work pretty well at keeping vehicles from crossing the median and hitting others head-on. No, they're not 100%, but they're far better than nothing. As long as you keep your car on the road where it belongs, you don't have to worry about them tearing up your sheet metal...they're far easier for you to avoid than some idiot coming at you through the median at 70-80mph.

Seems like the long right-hand curve was just enough to give the illusion that the snow-plow was in the right lane when actually it was in the left, directly in front of her. By the time the driver came up behind the slower-moving vehicle, all she could do was lock up the brakes and good-bye traction.

Good on you for stopping to helop, xantom. So much bad can happen in a matter of seconds.