50 Care Pileup on CA 198 Tuesday

[Max Rockatansky]

I almost completely forgot about this wreck on Tuesday, there was a 50 car pileup on CA 198 apparently at 16th Avenue:

https://weather.com/news/news/california-foggy-travel-pileup

http://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/article129797864.html

I can't speak for Kings County on Tuesday but the fog was pretty bad pretty much all around the Central Valley until about 11 AM.  I suppose it was kind of in the cards that the Tule Fog would get really bad with all the heavy storms clearing out this week.  For those who aren't aware 198 has an almost 20 mile freeway segment between CA 43 and roughly 25th Avenue.  There is two at-grade intersections at 9th Avenue and at 16th Avenue where the wreck happened:

https://www.google.com/maps/@36.3004424,-119.7446483,3a,75y,180h,90t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sYKiSP6Rwm01fSz2jhr8_BA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!6m1!1e1?hl=en

[NE2]

That's a lot of care.

[kurumi]

Good excuse to share this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1g9PFtSCKw

Glad there were no fatalities on 198.

[slorydn1]

The one thing I always notice about these fog/smog/sand/snow related pileups is that there is a front-end point. What I mean by that is that there is a car or truck that is at the front of the pile up and nothing else in front of it.

Speed is pretty much always a factor in these wrecks, as is following too close. Yet, I can't for the life of me figure out why everyone that was just ahead of the 50 car pileup made it through with no problem but the pileup happened anyway. Some one panic and slow down to 10-20 MPH, maybe?

I'm not saying that's what happened here, it's just a general observation of these large scale events that seem to happen on freeways more often than not.

[Max Rockatansky]

The one thing I always notice about these fog/smog/sand/snow related pileups is that there is a front-end point. What I mean by that is that there is a car or truck that is at the front of the pile up and nothing else in front of it.

Speed is pretty much always a factor in these wrecks, as is following too close. Yet, I can't for the life of me figure out why everyone that was just ahead of the 50 car pileup made it through with no problem but the pileup happened anyway. Some one panic and slow down to 10-20 MPH, maybe?

I'm not saying that's what happened here, it's just a general observation of these large scale events that seem to happen on freeways more often than not.

Yeah that is pretty much how it worked out in the dust storms in Sonoran Desert during monsoon season in Arizona also.  I haven't been able pin down the exact cause of the initial accident but CHP seems to be blaming it all on people driving too fast:

http://hanfordsentinel.com/news/local/chp-unsafe-speeds-caused--car-pileup/article_2d9b9e9d-acc2-5851-8fca-0e341dbc4db3.html

Really it probably doesn't help that turn-off of 16th Avenue doesn't allow you to build speed which would yield encounters with slow drivers even in normal conditions.  I do see huge mix of people driving way over the limit and panic driving like you just described on 99.  I want to say 99 had a 110 car pileup from the Tule Fog back in circa 2007?  I was kind of expecting this after all those storms since that's usually when the fog gets really bad until the ground dries out a little.  Oddly I've kind of found surface routes like 65 and 43 are really the places to be in the fog because so many people are worried about being in a head-on accident.  I want to say that there was wrecks on 41, I-5, and a couple on 99 the same as the 198 pileup if I recall correctly.

Incidentally....I kind of get the gist that I'm missing out on some interesting conversations in the chat room with some of the recent bleed over into the forum...especially in Off-Topic.