Home, at Last! - of a Winter Storm, Interstate Traffic, and Utility Trucks

My wife, #3 daughter, and son got back from an unexpectedly long visit at #2 daughter's household, up in the Red River Valley of the north. My son-in-law's, too, of course.

Winter storm warnings are still up - and I'm duly grateful to be back at home.

I was getting a little tired, after a few hours driving on the Interstate, when I noticed a truck up ahead. We'd already passed a line of something like a dozen utility trucks - cherry pickers and all - which had all stopped on the shoulder where one (1) truck-size vehicle had keeled over on its right side.

No idea why so many utility trucks were apparently responding to an accident.

Anyway, back to that truck: it was one of those that looks like a box on wheels from the back. Nothing unusual. I was going along at about 50 miles an hour, which was close to average for traffic there.

And, as I said, after a few hours of driving, I was getting a bit tired. We'd stopped off in Fergus Falls for supper (Debbie's Home Style Kitchen, first stoplight east of the 210 / Lincoln Avenue Interstate exit - highly recommended), but like I said: I was getting a bit tired.

So there we were, after dark, on the Interstate, about six seconds behind this truck, going about 50, when a semi passes us. Nothing unusual about that: the semi was going maybe 55, and I was thinking about picking up the pace a little.

Then I noticed two things:

1. Beautiful dancing strands of snowy fog were
   • Writhing away from the back of the semi
   • Hiding
     • The road
     • The back of the semi
     • And just about everything else
2. The red taillights of that truck (not the now-invisible semi)
   • They were getting bigger
     • FAST

I couldn't jam on the brakes. Well, I could - but I've lived in this are long enough to know that you don't do that in road conditions like this.

As gently as I could, given the speed with which that truck's rear end was rushing toward me and my family, I eased back on the gas and slid (bad choice of words - make that merged) into the passing lane, behind the mass of writhing ephemeral tendrils which presumably still concealed the back of a semi.

I think we were going about 45 miles an hour when we rushed by that truck.

My attention was focused on cutting speed as fast as I could, safely, to keep out of the thickest part of whatever the semi was kicking up: while retaining control of our van, staying on the road, and not hitting the other truck.

As the now-crawling truck's headlights receded in the rear-view mirror, the snow tendrils disappeared. The semi was well ahead of us by then. I eased back into the right lane. My wife remarked, casually, "you'd think a driver for [familiar company name omitted] would drive faster."

I wasn't tired any more.

Another Death in the Community: This One Was Avoidable

Michael D. "Mike" Willhite's is one of three funerals this week in Sauk Centre's Catholic parishes.

According to a St. Cloud Times article (January 6, 2010)

"The driver of a roadside service truck was seriously injured Tuesday night after a pickup struck his vehicle.

"Michael D. Willhite, 49, of Sauk Centre was airlifted to St. Cloud Hospital after the crash was reported at 9:27 p.m. on Interstate Highway 94, two miles east of Melrose.

"The service truck was traveling west when it was struck from behind, according to the State Patrol. The truck was slowing down in the right lane arriving at a service call that was on the right shoulder. The patrol said a semitrailer had stalled...."

The article says the pickup driver "was not able to react in time to avoid striking the service truck, according to the patrol."

And, that as of Wednesday last week, the patrol was still investigating the accident.

Why Write About This?

First, my condolences to relatives and friends of Mr. Willhite.

Second, without making any assumptions about how this accident happened: something to think about.

I haven't heard the term, "highway hypnosis" for a long, long time. And it's been a while since I read anything about driver fatigue or other safety concerns in the news. Not that I was looking for that sort of thing.

I do, however, drive fairly often, on and off the Interstate. And once in a while I notice a driver whose front bumper is awfully close to the back of the next vehicle. The word was "tailgating" in my youth. Tailgate parties: no problem. Tailgating on the road? It was a bad idea then, and it's a bad idea now.

I've gotten to close to a leading vehicle myself - it can happen. But it's one of the things on my 'don't do this' list.

Back Off: You Can Live With Three Seconds

At the risk of sounding like a killjoy, I suggest backing off.

If you're in a hurry, particularly on the Interstate, you've got the option of passing the vehicle in front of you. That's what the "left" lane is for. Obviously, on two-way roads, some extra care should be taken to make sure you don't run into someone coming the other way.

If you can't pass, or don't feel like it: be far enough back so that you can count off three seconds between the time the lead vehicle passes an object, and you do. Not my idea: It's from MinnDot. They suggest saying "one Minnesota, two Minnesota, three Minnesota" - but just about any three-or-four-syllable word between the numbers will do.

You can have lightning reflexes and all that - but at some point physics and biology make it simply impossible to stop in time. The fellow behind Mike Willhite may have had a fast reaction time, too, you know.

More:

• "BE SAFE - BACK OFF"
  Highway 55 Tailgating Safety Project, Minnesota Department of Transportation (December 2006)

Minnesota Bridge Disaster: Front Page News in Alexandria, Minnesota

The 35W bridge collapse in Minneapolis made the front page of the Echo Press today. That's Alexandria, Minnesota's newspaper.

The front page story was under the fold - on the bottom half of the page - and with no picture, but on the front page nonetheless. A sidebar to the article talked about the burst of cell phone traffic, as folks in this part of the state touched base with friends and kin in the Metro area.

(The Alex paper is pretty important to this family, when it comes to news from outside Sauk Centre. Alexandria is the nearest larger town, 20 miles up the Interstate. At about 8,000 population, it's roughly twice the size of Sauk Centre, where I live.)

The extended family that I'm a part of added a little to the communication overload, although what my wife did was call her father, who lives in town, to see how everyone was. At this point, his home is a sort of headquarters for the family.

The Alex paper's Friday edition has a photo of the mess on page three of their "A" section, part of an article on how folks in this area can help. Most of it's very local: important, but if you're that close to Alexandria, MN, odds are that you'll have seen the paper already.

For anyone in Minnesota's Metro area, here's what I posted on another site on Wednesday: I've heard that they're going to need blood. In case you're in the Metro area, interested, and able, here are some places to donate: Memorial Blood Centers / Where to Donate: Twin Cities Locations

The Red Cross Twin Cities Chapter says that eligible donors can "call 1.800.GIVE.LIFE" (1.800.4483.5433) "or go online to givebloodgivelife.org to learn more about blood donation and to make a blood donation appointment. A blood donor card or driver's license are required at check-in. Donors must be at least 17 years old and must weigh at least 110 pounds."

I'll add another link today: American Red Cross Twin Cities Chapter. That site was alternately very slow to respond, or not responding at all on the night of the disaster. The Red Cross TC home page has a link to www.safeandwell.org, where people who were in the area can register as being alive and walking, and where family and friends can search the list of those who have registered.

Two Metro area television stations are doing a decent job of covering aftermath of the bridge collapse, KMSP and KSTP.

One item that's half-way into the news that I read is what happened with the Twins game at the Metrodome, on one end of the 35W bridge. The folks running decided to keep the game going (that's been in the written news that I saw) because they didn't want all those fans driving out of the Metrodome before Minneapolis law enforcement had a chance to set up some sort of traffic control for re-routing a few thousand cars. The last part was on radio news in this area, I understand.

I've already heard a Minnesota politician say something guardedly stupid about the collapse. There's probably going to be quite a bit more as election time comes up.

Finally, I've been very glad to see how folks around the bridge collapse handled the catastrophe. KMSP said that many "were asking police if there was anything they could do to help." "They thanked us for the sentiment, but said there wasn't much we could do right now," KMSP quoted a woman as saying. She'd walked a few miles from where she lived to the disaster area.

Then, there's the security video footage of the bridge collapse. It shows the bridge breaking and falling, then a young woman with a cell phone running away from the bridge. She was making pretty good time, and I don't blame her. Maybe two beats later, she was trotting back toward the bridge, cell phone still held to her ear. My guess is that she was going to see if she could help.

Minnesota Bridge Disaster Followup

Amazingly, the death toll is still very low in the 35W bridge collapse in Minneapolis. Only four people are confirmed dead at this point. There are 20 or 30 missing: people who were out on errands, coming home from work, or otherwise engaged in the area who haven't returned yet.

I posted a few online and toll-free contacts where people in the area can help, on yesterday's Sauk Centre Journal entry.

Minnesota Bridge Disaster

About 2 hours ago, at around 6:10 pm central time (USA), the I-35W bridge over the Mississippi River between Minneapolis and St. Paul collapsed.

That's rush-hour traffic.

This extended family does not seem to have been directly affected: our family members who might have been in the area have been accounted for.

Other families, however, have lost people in this disaster. This family's prayers are with those who lost their lives, with those who are hurt, with the families who are affected, and with the emergency and trauma workers who are sorting out this mess.

God be with you all.