How fortunate for me to have my camera handy at this moment.
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This is what I swerved to avoid hitting:
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That is a 17 car pileup. I was driving behind the black hatchback. The minivan and the Pontiac were behind me. This stretch of road was going downhill and there was a curve at the bottom. The below image shows how poor visibility was at the time of the pileup. What's funny was after the crash, visibility cleared up as shown in some of the other pictures.
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So, here's the story. A family member had been admitted to ICU under critical condition so we had to go. I was at home for winter break and I was scheduled to go back to Reno this weekend anyways because I have work on Monday. So, I was driving the Taurus with my sisters and my parents were following in the Windstar (they were about 15 miles behind us). The weather was fine when we left. A little cloudy, but no snow. Once we got to the interstate it started to snow. Not too bad still, just light flurries. We got to about 10-15 miles before of Reno and all of a sudden there was a white-out! Snow came down hard and there was no visibility. I was shocked some people were driving without their headlights on. So I'm going 55 MPH in the right lane following the tire tracks in front of me (which I couldn't see the vehicle). I get past this hill and coast down the other side. All of a sudden, I see brake lights in the distance. I get on the brake and the lights were approaching me fast! I pumped the pedal to flash my lights to warn whoever was behind me and then nailed the pedal as hard as I could. I knew at that moment that we were going to be in an accident. I was determined not to wreck this car so I was going to aim it at the softest thing I see since there was no way it's going to stop by itself with ABS. I caught a glimpse of a break in the guardrail and in a split second I turned the wheel to aim the car at the gap. I came within millimeters of nailing the guardrail head-on. I saw a pole and thought "This is going to hurt", but luckily that pole was made of plastic so the Taurus hit it with no resistance. The car went up on the rocks and stopped harsh and sudden.
Once it stopped, I tried to get out. I felt something hit me when the car stopped and it turned out to be my sister's cell phone. I told her to call 911, but she just dialed and gave me the phone. I get out of the car, the door flies open onto the rocks and bushes and I tumble out. My sister was hanging by the seatbelt and she tumbled out when she unbuckled it. I stood there and watched people smashing into each other. It was like in slow motion. I was in shock and I was scared. I was freaking out because there was nothing I could do to stop the madness. I saw the minivan come flying and nail the concrete barrier. Then the red Escape nailed the black hatchback. The large white truck hit the red Escape and made it do a 180! The Explorer got the worse. It was going so fast it looked like it hurt! I saw some of the people running up the hill waving their arms to warn drivers. Eventually people stopped and we all helped people.
I called my parents and told them there was an accident. They were stuck in the traffic at the top of the hill, but they parked and walked down to comfort my sisters and me. All the news crews from the TV stations where there. I was on the 11 o'clock news on two channels.
The woman in the Escape and the guy driving the Explorer suffered serious neck injuries. There was also a woman stuck in traffic up the hill who went into labor. It took around ten to twenty minutes for the emergency crew and NHP to show up. In the opposite lane, a pickup truck nailed the back of a fire truck. It was utter chaos! I heard it was one of the worst crashes on this highway.
We crashed at around 3:30PM and traffic wasn't released until 6:00PM. Everyone was stuck because of the way this stretch of highway is designed. Traffic could not be rerouted and emergency crews were coming from both ends. The tow trucks came and had to clear all the cars before traffic was allowed to move. There were 17 vehicles involved, 8 of them had to be towed while 9 were able to leave with no major problems. Unfortunately, my car had to be towed. They said since I hit the rocks the car might have undercarriage damage and alignment problems so they couldn't let me leave with it. It's now sitting at the towing yard until the insurance company decides what to do with it. It may be a month before I get my car back is what my dad tells me.
What a way to start the new year, huh? And I thought 2007 was a crappy year.
Click to enlarge:
This is what I swerved to avoid hitting:
That is a 17 car pileup. I was driving behind the black hatchback. The minivan and the Pontiac were behind me. This stretch of road was going downhill and there was a curve at the bottom. The below image shows how poor visibility was at the time of the pileup. What's funny was after the crash, visibility cleared up as shown in some of the other pictures.
So, here's the story. A family member had been admitted to ICU under critical condition so we had to go. I was at home for winter break and I was scheduled to go back to Reno this weekend anyways because I have work on Monday. So, I was driving the Taurus with my sisters and my parents were following in the Windstar (they were about 15 miles behind us). The weather was fine when we left. A little cloudy, but no snow. Once we got to the interstate it started to snow. Not too bad still, just light flurries. We got to about 10-15 miles before of Reno and all of a sudden there was a white-out! Snow came down hard and there was no visibility. I was shocked some people were driving without their headlights on. So I'm going 55 MPH in the right lane following the tire tracks in front of me (which I couldn't see the vehicle). I get past this hill and coast down the other side. All of a sudden, I see brake lights in the distance. I get on the brake and the lights were approaching me fast! I pumped the pedal to flash my lights to warn whoever was behind me and then nailed the pedal as hard as I could. I knew at that moment that we were going to be in an accident. I was determined not to wreck this car so I was going to aim it at the softest thing I see since there was no way it's going to stop by itself with ABS. I caught a glimpse of a break in the guardrail and in a split second I turned the wheel to aim the car at the gap. I came within millimeters of nailing the guardrail head-on. I saw a pole and thought "This is going to hurt", but luckily that pole was made of plastic so the Taurus hit it with no resistance. The car went up on the rocks and stopped harsh and sudden.
Once it stopped, I tried to get out. I felt something hit me when the car stopped and it turned out to be my sister's cell phone. I told her to call 911, but she just dialed and gave me the phone. I get out of the car, the door flies open onto the rocks and bushes and I tumble out. My sister was hanging by the seatbelt and she tumbled out when she unbuckled it. I stood there and watched people smashing into each other. It was like in slow motion. I was in shock and I was scared. I was freaking out because there was nothing I could do to stop the madness. I saw the minivan come flying and nail the concrete barrier. Then the red Escape nailed the black hatchback. The large white truck hit the red Escape and made it do a 180! The Explorer got the worse. It was going so fast it looked like it hurt! I saw some of the people running up the hill waving their arms to warn drivers. Eventually people stopped and we all helped people.
I called my parents and told them there was an accident. They were stuck in the traffic at the top of the hill, but they parked and walked down to comfort my sisters and me. All the news crews from the TV stations where there. I was on the 11 o'clock news on two channels.
The woman in the Escape and the guy driving the Explorer suffered serious neck injuries. There was also a woman stuck in traffic up the hill who went into labor. It took around ten to twenty minutes for the emergency crew and NHP to show up. In the opposite lane, a pickup truck nailed the back of a fire truck. It was utter chaos! I heard it was one of the worst crashes on this highway.
We crashed at around 3:30PM and traffic wasn't released until 6:00PM. Everyone was stuck because of the way this stretch of highway is designed. Traffic could not be rerouted and emergency crews were coming from both ends. The tow trucks came and had to clear all the cars before traffic was allowed to move. There were 17 vehicles involved, 8 of them had to be towed while 9 were able to leave with no major problems. Unfortunately, my car had to be towed. They said since I hit the rocks the car might have undercarriage damage and alignment problems so they couldn't let me leave with it. It's now sitting at the towing yard until the insurance company decides what to do with it. It may be a month before I get my car back is what my dad tells me.
What a way to start the new year, huh? And I thought 2007 was a crappy year.
Click to enlarge:
