Post by Clipper on Mar 29, 2022 10:43:41 GMT -5
Our news is filled with video and photos of the devastation on the highways yesterday in the Northeast. that massive accident near Frackville Pa. that resulted in 3 fatalities was a horrific scene. You could hear the crashes and banging going on one right after the other in the video I watched. That particular stretch of I-81 is about the most desolate stretch of the road from Binghamton to Harrisburg. I have driven that stretch with a truck under similar conditions. A driver has little choice and your fate is in the hands of God when you can't see to drive, but it is too dangerous to pull over and stop. All you can do is slow down, turn on the flashers, hope you don't get hit in the ass by some moron going to fast for the conditions, and ease along with your butt making a hickey on the seat cushion and your hands gripping the wheel so tight that it hurts all the way to your shoulders. Your eyes are strained and you fight the vertigo that can be caused by the swirling snow and lack of visibility.
My son was traveling home to Ohio from Oneida yesterday and said he drove through similar whiteouts near Rochester, and twice between Buffalo and Cleveland and narrowly avoided being in those areas when multi vehicle accidents happened. He encountered two places where there were damaged cars in the ditches and in the side of the road with emergency vehicles cleaning the scene.
Did Utica avoid those total whiteouts and resulting accidents and slick roads? I certainly don't miss driving from Kayuta Lake to Rome under those conditions. I took the ditch one morning, bent the bumper and a tie rod on a brand new Chevy truck when a pair of headlights was coming at me on my side of the road in a whiteout between Stittville and Floyd on 365. I don't think the other driver ever actually DID see me. I had the truck towed to Riolo's body shop in Rome where they gave me a loaner to drive. When I actually got to my office an hour or so late, there was only me and one of the airman that lived on base. It wasn't an hour before the base commander closed the base and sent all non-essential workers home. The price that was paid to enjoy the summers on the Lake.
My son was traveling home to Ohio from Oneida yesterday and said he drove through similar whiteouts near Rochester, and twice between Buffalo and Cleveland and narrowly avoided being in those areas when multi vehicle accidents happened. He encountered two places where there were damaged cars in the ditches and in the side of the road with emergency vehicles cleaning the scene.
Did Utica avoid those total whiteouts and resulting accidents and slick roads? I certainly don't miss driving from Kayuta Lake to Rome under those conditions. I took the ditch one morning, bent the bumper and a tie rod on a brand new Chevy truck when a pair of headlights was coming at me on my side of the road in a whiteout between Stittville and Floyd on 365. I don't think the other driver ever actually DID see me. I had the truck towed to Riolo's body shop in Rome where they gave me a loaner to drive. When I actually got to my office an hour or so late, there was only me and one of the airman that lived on base. It wasn't an hour before the base commander closed the base and sent all non-essential workers home. The price that was paid to enjoy the summers on the Lake.
