Wildfire smoke from nearby marsh fires and heavy fog mixed to produce a “superfog” event early Tuesday morning northeast of New Orleans near the Irish Bayou, creating near-zero visibility conditions for drivers on Interstate-10.
Multiple accidents occurred in the area, resulting in one death, the New Orleans Police Department said in an emailed statement. Several victims were taken to the hospital, and sections of I-10 were closed in both directions.
Conditions became undrivable within minutes, overwhelming motorists with severely limited visibility from 4 a.m. to 7 a.m. local time. The National Weather Service warned drivers to stay off the roads and issued a dense fog advisory through 10 a.m. for eastern New Orleans and southeast St. Tammany parishes.
As someone who recently drove into near-0 visibility (less than 1 car length in any direction with people on both front and back of me) due to a field fire and some wind:
Wtf? Slow the fuck down, holy shit people
Some people will not slow down, they consider the speed limit a constant that they need to maintain.
Right? I’ve driven in some CRAZY ass snow storms, and this stuff seems so avoidable. Blinkers and low speed is all you need babyyy
And rear fog lights. Idiots turn them on in light rain, but forget to in serious fog :s
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Idiots.
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Even well intentioned people go from “visibility” to the edge of the “no visibility” and due to the fog can’t judge that there are stopped cars just within the “no visibility”. So they drive into the “no visibility” try to stop, and it’s too late. Thus the pileup has started, and as the fog expands/moves, it continues.
Yes, people should be ready to stop at any moment, but under certain conditions on the highway you can believe you are commuting normally then be compromised quickly. A bit of bad luck and when you realized you are compromised you’ve already hit someone.
Yes, drive safer. Yes yes. I hear you.
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At least the previous “superfog” tragedy was still fresh in people’s minds and I assume went a long way to preventing further injury and death.
