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same exact thing happened just 3 days ago in Wisconsin, but it involved over 100 cars and resulted in only 2 deaths.
| quote: | Fog doesn't cause crashes, people do
PATRICIA SIMMS and DEBORAH ZIFF
Fog wasn 't the villain -- people were.
In the series of crashes Sunday on Interstate 39-90 that killed two, drivers failed to adjust to changes in visibility, said a State Patrol expert.
"People drove into that crash at 65 and 70 miles an hour, maybe even more, " said Maj. Dan Lonsdorf, director of transportation safety at the state Department of Transportation. "The fog did not cause the crash last night. People cause crashes because of the way they drive, because they fail to adapt to their environment. "
Observed visibility at the Dane County Regional Airport was about 300 feet at noon Sunday and about 700 feet at 2 p.m.
Drivers described hitting a "wall of fog " as they approached the crash site. Experts say fog density can vary significantly in a short stretch.
Still, Lonsdorf said drivers often don 't appreciate how fast they 're driving. "Cars are made better, they 're quieter, they 're designed to protect (motorists) better, " he said. "All of these things make people feel a little more invincible. "
One British study found some people actually speed up when driving in fog, Lonsdorf said. "People in fog fear what 's in front of them, but they also fear what 's behind them, " he said. "... They don 't want anybody coming up behind them and running into them, so they go faster.
"They don 't realize what it takes for them to stop, how violent the crash will be when they are traveling at those kinds of speeds. "
Topography also affects where fog congregates, as it tucks into low elevations or lingers on hills, said Jonathan Martin, chairman of the UW-Madison department of atmospheric and oceanic sciences.
"I ve seen it go from what seems like one-half mile visibility or greater to something one-quarter mile or less within a few dozen of yards, " Martin said.
Lonsdorf has some advice: "Don 't overdrive your vision -- what you can see -- so that, in the event something happens in front of you, you can recognize that and you can stop in time." |
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