Dense fog causes miles-long car pile-up on I-55 near New Orleans

A combination of dense fog and smoke from at least three wildfires burning in Louisiana caused a miles-long car pile-up on I-55 near New Orleans, according to officials. NBC News’ Priscilla Thompson reports.

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#NewOrleans #CarCrash #Fog

[jeanettecameron]

The fog didn't cause this. Driving too fast for conditions did.

[jaxystarr]

People driving in a straight line with some fog caused people driving way too fast caused this. When there's fog you slow down and proceed cautiously and there's no way the cars would be on top of each other like that unless people were flying through that fog.

[citizengoodman]

From looking at the impacts of the vehicles everyone had to be going too fast. Why would people drive so fast in a super fog?

[tc]

“Drive according to conditions”, I feel like people glanced over that part, which is crazy

[Silentguy_]

Probably started by just a few people driving way too fast. I've driven plenty in dense fog and you typically can't go the posted speed limit, especially on the interstate. I've seen fog so dense that a semi-truck disappears after just a couple hundred feet.

[hjong]

I hope everyone recovers soon. Not the fog’s fault, though. If visibility is zero, if everyone came to a crawl, there wouldn’t be accidents. It takes one reckless driver to plow into someone that starts a chain reaction. If the person following that reckless driver isn’t tailgating, they should be able to stop in time.

[idraven]

I've driven that hwy. many times, it was probably bumper to bumper at 80+ mph, with idiots weaving lanes, trying to pass, late for work....chain reaction

[rl]

Just drove through that before any accidents started. Zero visibility and people were still driving faster than the speed limit because the fog was intermittent. I made it through tailing an 18 wheeler.

[oleFuzzy]

If there is fog and you can't see properly. Drive with full speed😂

[bobby]

Drivers just don't want to slow down for any reason. People love to tailgate other drivers and have other aggressive driving behaviors. This pileup could have easily been prevented with safe drivers. Autonomous/driverless cars can't come soon enough, knowing how many aggressive careless drivers are on the roads.

[TerryCheever]

Bad drivers cause miles-long car pile-up on I-55 near New Orleans. Dense fog didn't cause the accidents, rather drivers ignoring the safety factors and not slowing down for driving conditions are who caused the accidents. Always gotta be someone or something else's fault, yeesh.

[mdocod]

I think they should charge everyone involved with reckless driving. Stopping distance should never be greater than visibility.

[lowandslow]

Dense fog did not cause this. People driving too fast for the conditions caused this.

[Hippy]

I experienced this a few years ago when driving on I-5 after passing grapevine exiting the pass. When I started to merge to exit Sacramento/SF a dense thick fog covered totally the whole area for miles. It's like a white bedsheet covering my entire windshield. Absolutely couldn't see anything. It's just like driving on clouds. It was an horrific moment, the scariest in my life, it's between life and death. I could not stop the car as i see absolutely nothing. I just had to keep going in a very slow speed and guessing the road, worrying if any car is in front of me or behind me. Finally I saw the emergency flashlight light in front and I realized in this dangerous situation we need to turn the emergency lights on, because the regular lights do not get through the thick fog for people to see you. That's something new I learned from this scary experience. And soon I saw many other flashing lights ahead and behind.
Maybe many of you knew this rule when driving in fog.
But please use the Emergency FLASH Light to save lives and yourself in such situation.
For those people who live in these areas, they know what to do because this happens often during rainy and cold weather.
Take care each other, everyone.

[leoantonio]

Um, that kind of fog is just known as “thick”.

[NotSure]

Gotta put the phones down folks. 🙏🏻 to all those involved!

[Cinebon]

If you cant see the distance it takes for your car to stop…. you are going too fast…

[browngreen]

If visibility is zero, then your speed should be zero too.

[tinaapicelli]

I live about a hour to the east of this, I blame local officials for not blocking roads. Someone is gonna get sued

[airraverstaz]

"I can barely see! Better do about 60....maybe even 75 just to be safe."