Fog

pelicn · Oct 18, 2007

Tonight I'm driving I-88 in NY and it's foggy as heck! I'm slowed down to about 40mph with 4 ways on because it's soupy enough that a about a 1 1/2 truck lengths is all I can comfortably see. All of a sudden I see headlights pop out of the fog behind me, and it turns out to be 5 super truckers flying low in the hammer lane probably 6ft off each others bumpers.
I know it took less than 30 seconds before all of them completely disappeared in the soup.
What are these guys thinking?

buckeyewildman · Oct 18, 2007

super trucker steering wheel holders call them what you want they most definitly are not professional if they are driving like that see it all the time the first time one of these guys hits and kills someone they will wonder why and of course blame it on the other person so stay professonal and stay safe

LDB · Oct 18, 2007

That's when I usually get on the radio and ask something like "I guess you guys didn't hear about that crash in CA huh?" Alternatively I may ask if any of them remotely believe when the lead plows into a slow mover that they'll be able to stop. I usually finish with something like at least the idiot pool has a chance to lessen. I just throw out a few things about abject stupidity. Then I turn it off so I don't have to listen to their moronic replies. At 40 you'd need far more than 1.5 truck lengths to stop though. In that thick a fog you should just pull off and wait. The crash at 40 wouldn't be nearly as severe as theirs at 60 but it would still pretty much ruin your day.

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redytrk · Oct 18, 2007

>Tonight I'm driving I-88 in NY and it's foggy as heck
Glad I got thru that stretch a couple hrs before you. It was getting patchy but did not have to slo or use flashers.

This is the main reason I have six LED Stop/Hazard tail lights. Sure I know they blind the tailgaters...But they are great when running in fog.

Suds43 · Oct 18, 2007

Hey Pelicn, welcome to New York...........always fog as thick as pea soup along I-88 this time of year........Know exactly what your talking about..........played that game on that road many a time.......

poison · Oct 18, 2007

what I like to know is if its foggy out what are you doing driving and posting this message at the same time for thats what you said "tonight i'm driving on I88 and i'm slowed down to 40mph with 4ways on"

sometimes you win sometimes you lose!!!

Paul56 · Oct 18, 2007

>Tonight I'm driving I-88 in NY and it's foggy as heck! I'm
>slowed down to about 40mph with 4 ways on because it's soupy
>enough that a about a 1 1/2 truck lengths is all I can
>comfortably see. All of a sudden I see headlights pop out
>of the fog behind me, and it turns out to be 5 super
>truckers flying low in the hammer lane probably 6ft off each
>others bumpers.
>I know it took less than 30 seconds before all of them
>completely disappeared in the soup.
>What are these guys thinking?

Yep.

We have run into the same thing with snow coming down so hard the visibility was reduced to practically zero.

Time to find a safe spot, shut it down and cozy up in the sleeper.

davebeckym · Oct 19, 2007

That brings a question to mind. Does infrared see though fog??? I always thought I'd like to have that. Not sure if I'd like to see how many deer there really are!

redytrk · Oct 19, 2007

> That brings a question to mind. Does infrared see though
>fog??? I always thought I'd like to have that. Not sure if
>I'd like to see how many deer there really are!
The technology is there.Right now cost of $#10,000 is a problem.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FLIR

pelicn · Oct 19, 2007

Poison? Of course I was typing and driving while battling the fog How's that for multitasking? :+

Seriously, no, we were on a Gov run that had no safe haven at either end, so it was drive a while, stop a while.

TeamCaffee · Oct 19, 2007

Don't you just love those loads? Least the fog in a way helped you out by slowing you down some more!

LDB · Oct 19, 2007

There's at least one company that displayed at MATS with a FLIR system. I don't remember who they were and have no clue where the brochure is now but their system wasn't anywhere near $10k. I believe it was a couple thousand like a good camera/video system but don't remember for sure.

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Suds43 · Oct 19, 2007

Dave, you definitely wouldn't want to see how many deer there were out there........ALOT more than you could imagine on that stretch of road!!!

))
I"m originally from western NY, the key word there being "from"....NY is a good place to be from!! LOL NOT a good place to live!!!
Here's what happened to us one time while driving t/t hauling grapes to the Finger Lake region.....well, not to us specifically, but to one of the leased trucks..
Was one of those typical "pea soup" nights that was refered to on this post......Going about 35 mph, following the white line. That's all you could see.
This one driver was hauling back empty luckily......He's crawling along, watching the white line.....suddenly he notices tail lights directly in front of him........no way to stop!! He plowed into the rear of the car, driving the back bumper all the way up to the back seat. Miraculessly, no injuries.......but the people in the car, senior citizens, said they got lost in the fog and had stopped, thinking they were on the shoulder of the road.....They were sitting completely still in the driving lane!!!!!!