Highway Safety: Negligence has no conscience.

Highway Safety: Negligence has no conscience.

There’s a three car accident at the Arebela Four Corners in Arebela, Missouri. According the Missouri State Highway Patrol they concluded that a nineteen year old driving northbound on Route A failed to stop at the stop sign as it intersected with US 136. A westbound vehicle coming through the intersection struck the passenger side. If that is all that would have happened that would be the end of it, but it wasn’t. The father and son were southbound on Route H and obeying the law they stopped at the stop sign at this intersection with US 136. The car that didn’t obey the stop sign then crashed into the truck that had nothing to do with any of this and the two occupants were killed.

The people in the vehicles that were obeying the law were either seriously injured or died in the crash.

Arlo R. Kreiss, 67 of Keosaqua, Iowa – died.

His son Richard Kreiss also of Keosaqua, Iowa – died.

Marvin O. Boyer, 77 of Carthage, IL. – Hospitalized with serious injuries.

The Kreiss’ were in a Chevrolet S-10. Zimmerman, 19 who didn’t stop at the stop sign drove a Chevrolet. Mr. Boyer was in a Honda. One has to wonder just how fast this kid was driving and what caused him to drive through the stop sign. With all the distractions we invite into our cars and trucks it’s not surprising this can happen. But what surprises me is that those just sitting still are struck with such impact that they died in the crash. You can never be too careful or maintain too close a lookout around you. Even if you’re obeying the law, if you see someone coming towards where you are it’s important to try and anticipate what is about to happen. If the Zimmerman Chevy was approaching at speeds indicating he is probably not going to stop horns should start to blow and drivers who find themselves in the Kreiss’ situation need to quickly assess an escape route, even if it means backing up away from the intersection.

Fog isn’t normally a condition that is sudden and without warning.  The driver usually knows about it when they get into their car or truck to drive. Or you see it coming and have fair warning. Maybe on a boat you’d get overtaken by it but not on land. It’s easily anticipated; you see it and you should adjust your speed. If you don’t that’s negligence, plain and simple. A story on point is by Sach Oliver from Arkansas, he writes:

“Driving in Fog is much more dangerous than we sometimes realize. In Arkansas and Missouri, we are so used to driving in fog that we take it for granted or become too comfortable with this potentially hazardous driving condition. The reason I was compelled to find these safe steps to follow while driving in fog is because there was a 16 vehicle wreck this past Wednesday around 7:00am on eastbound I-44 near Joplin. According to the Missouri State Highway Patrol three accidents occurred within minutes of each other.”

Driving in Fog is Dangerous: Steps to Drive Safer, Sach Oliver

Back on January 23, 2008 I wrote about a collision partially caused by dense fog.

If the fog was a factor then why would the Highway Patrol issue him a citation? What law was broken that would require issuance of a citation? If the 19 year-old had been through this intersection many times previously then he must have known of the approaching stop sign; unless of course he’s distracted.  Fog can be a problem but probably only under unfamiliar circumstances.

“I've previously blogged about fog and comparative fault. The question previously posed was whether the at-fault driver can be excused claiming the thick fog created a sudden emergency. My answer then was no, and it's the same today. This fog is obvious the minute you drive out of your driveway and begin heading down the road. If knowing there is dense fog on the highway why would you enter the interstate and drive 65 mph when you can't see 100 feet to the front? Are you aware of how many feet per second a car travels at any given speed?

If you divide 5,280 feet by 3,600 seconds and then multiply the answer by the vehicles mph you'll have converted feet/per/second speed. A short hand way of doing it is to multiply your speed times 1.467. So a car traveling 30 mph is also traveling at 44 feet per second. One traveling 65 mph is traveling at 95.355 feet per second. Add in your reaction time and there is no way if you can't see 100 feet in front of you that you will be able to stop in time.”

Dense Fog can lead to multi-vehicle pile ups, Steve Lombardi

 

Is watching too much television making people believe they are invincible? Or are we just getting dumber by adding more and more distractions to our driving time?

This is such a tragedy; the laws of negligence have no conscience.