User FunctionsDon't have an account yet? Sign up as a New User Lost your password? who's online
Guest Users: 11 what's new
STORIESNo new storiesCOMMENTS last 2 daysNo new commentsEventsThere are no upcoming events last 10 posts
Friday27-JunThursday26-JunWednesday25-JunTuesday24-JunMonday23-JunSunday22-Jun |
Would you pass the salt?Friday, January 19 2007 @ 10:53 AM Check out this video of an icy strip of road in Portland, OR and the many, many fender benders that result. I can tell you from experience that it's not a good feeling having absolutely zero control over the car you're driving as it slides headlong into other things.
TrackbackTrackback URL for this entry: http://candleboy.com/candleblog/trackback.php/20070119105301308 No trackback comments for this entry.Idioten
Authored by: smoothie on
Friday, January 19 2007 @ 11:17 AM
One wants to think those people quite dumb for moving their cars; hover, if I remember correctly, Portland doesn't generally salt the roads (preferring to shut everything down for the one day a year they usually get snow accumulation rather than spend the extra money on road surface upkeep) so they might have had to wait a long time before road conditions improved. Spine, w/ all of the snow/ice this winter, have they been salting? Oregon (or maybe Multnomah County) actually made studded tires illegal while I was living out there (chains were OK). Would you pass the salt?
Authored by: DanZ on
Friday, January 19 2007 @ 11:24 AM
Ha ha ha. That's great. Apparently people in Portland are really stupid. Duh, frozen roadways, zero traction ... gosh, let's go for a drive! Madge, pack up the kids and the first-aid kit!
Idioten
Authored by: billsimmon on
Friday, January 19 2007 @ 11:29 AM
I suspect that even if there was a will to salt, if the city hadn't invested in salt trucks, it would be very difficult to do it. That combined with a general lack of winter driving experience can lead to occasional disaster.
Idioten
Authored by: smoothie on
Friday, January 19 2007 @ 11:35 AM
True dat, as the kids say, Bill, but don't forget that there is snowfall every winter in the Cascades and the Coast Range, so I assume there has to be some capability to get appropriate equipment and personnel into Portland in emergency situtations. Idioten
Authored by: Spine on
Friday, January 19 2007 @ 11:54 AM
Nope, no salt in PDX. They put down sand instead. But yes, the usual approach when we get this kind of snow/ice accumulation is to shut the city down and wait for it to end. People here seem increasingly fed up with this approach, as severe winter weather isn't really that rare here. Three years ago we had an epic, colossal ice- and snowstorm that had even the airport closed for a few days. This time, it was just a bit of ice and a few inches of snow, but schools (including mine) were closed for two days all the same.
Portland has enough snowplows and sand-spreaders to clear the major roads, but not the side streets where people actually live. The driver of the first car in that video, by the way, was a 79-year-old man, which isn't surprising. --- Idioten
Authored by: smoothie on
Friday, January 19 2007 @ 12:04 PM
That looked like the hill behind Zupan's going up to Washington Park to me, sound right? That would indeed be a crappy place to have to drive under those conditions. Made all the more dumb by the fadt that one is in such close walking distance to stuff from there, but I suppose if you're old and fragile the prospect of walking on ice isnt' so great either. Idioten
Authored by: billsimmon on
Friday, January 19 2007 @ 12:26 PM
I just realized I should have named this post The Non-Friction Section.
Idioten
Authored by: Pam on
Friday, January 19 2007 @ 12:59 PM
Call me a martyr if you must but if I happened to die when the roads were bad because an emergency vehicle couldn't get to me (a resolution would be to have especially sound emergency vehicles - how do ice fishers drive out there anyway) I would still cheer them on for sparing the waterways of salt all the time.
Idioten
Authored by: DanZ on
Friday, January 19 2007 @ 01:48 PM
Good one. Or how about: "God's retribution for all the stuff that those people in Portland did to deserve God's retribution.". I mean, aren't all weather phenomena acts of God's loving or furious nature? If that 79 yr old man was meant to die on the ice, he'd have died in that video. He probably molested his daughter or stole some money one time, but only enough to deserve a little life-threatening. God probably spared the guy's life because he once killed a christian ... or a negro ... or a muslim like the guy in "The Stranger". I guess it depends on which God was in charge that day. The GIC (God In Charge) gets to pick his weather and its consequences, apparently. ... - ... - ... [looks around, SPGUON] this thread is pwned!
Would you pass the salt?
Authored by: Spine on
Friday, January 19 2007 @ 07:29 PM
And by the way, here's how we're feeling about
that video here in Stumptown.
--- Would you pass the salt?
Authored by: JIMO on
Saturday, January 20 2007 @ 11:13 AM
It's JIMO rebel-bashing time again.
A few years back, my brother avoided being part of, basically, the worst accident ever. It happened right in front of him outside Fredericksburg, VA, on I-95 in the winter with about an inch, maybe two, of snow on the road. A tractor trailer slid off an exit ramp onto the north-bound lane, unable to stop, smashed into several cars, carrying them with him into the south-bound lane and oncoming traffic, and all hell broke loose. When it was over, there were about 750 cars involved. A SEVEN HUNDRED AND FIFTY car pile-up with maybe 2 inches of snow. I repeat, SEVEN HUNDRED AND FIFTY. I'm sorry, but that would NOT happen in the North. Maybe 50 cars when all was said and done, but not 250 shy of a grand. Jayzuz Chroist! Calling southern drivers incompetent is a compliment. --- Would you pass the salt?
Authored by: evening on
Saturday, January 20 2007 @ 12:32 PM
I remember that accident JIMO (I think we were still in N VA at the time). Nuts. My boss was that close to dying in a really bad car accident (road rage) where only 1 person lived. That person happened to use my boss' cell phone to call work. Cars are dangerous things!
|
