Bad accident

[RoBoTeq]

Sunday as Lisa and I were driving southwest to Pagosa Springs we hit some really strange weather. During a really nasty sleet storm that covered I-76 with slush, the SUV in front of us lost control and started sliding sideways down the middle of the highway which is one lane each way and no medium.

I was able to slow down enough to avoid any of what happened next. A car coming the other direction hit the back of the car that lost control, then another car coming the other direction hit the both of them, then a third car trying to get around on our side of the road hit the front of the original SUV that lost control, driving it partially onto the shoulder of the lane opposite of our lane where a fourth car running off the road over there hit them again.

We wound up on the side of the road about a block past the pile up. By the time I got one of my phones to work to call 911, we could see that a vehicle with emergency lights was turning around to go back to this mess. It was still sleeting really hard and there was nothing we could do at that point so we decided to get out of the way of those who could do something.

There is a good chance that there were no major injuries because everyone was sort of slowed down by the time the smashing of vehicles started, but it was certainly a bit of a scary situation.

[jpb2]

Glad you somewhat dodged it. Enjoy the rest of you're trip.

[HeyBob]

Sleet? You guys up in the mountains of Colorado or something? Wow!

[RoBoTeq]

Sleet? You guys up in the mountains of Colorado or something? Wow!

You guessed it! On our way from the convention in Fort Morgan, just south of Denver on our way to Pagosa Springs in the SouthWest corner of Colorado. Spotts said the weather was unseasonably cold all weekend and that pattern followed us south on Sunday. More of the Global Warming affect I suppose.

We hit thunderstorms and sunshine, sometimes at the same time, for most of the 7 hour trip from Fort Morgan to Pagosa Springs. But for about 45 minutes it was heavy sleet. The slush on the roadway built up to about 1/2" to 3/4" of slush in about five minutes of sleeting. I had just told Lisa that the roadway shouldn't be slippery when the SUV in front of us lost control.

[Diceman]

Coming to Denver from out west we passed 2 bad wrecks due to the sudden hail-snow-rain that hit the area. One was 2 cars that were pretty much totaled on a hill, we didn't see it but it must have just happened cause the guy was on his phone and nobody was pulled over. The other was really bad, the westbound lane after that huge tunnel, 25 car pile up, cars all over the place. The westbound traffic was backed up for miles cause they closed I-70. Fortunately we were going east. It was very slow going for quite some time, what a mess.
I guess we were all lucky, .................or we are from an area where ya know how to drive when the snow starts falling.

[RoBoTeq]

I have to go along with being from an area where we know how to drive in snow, but doesn't Colorado get major snow storms in the winter? Maybe the difference is that wet, sloppy sleet type of crap that was coming down compared to nice dry powdery snow they may be more used to in Colorado. Who knows, the people in the SUV that lost control may be from somewhere else.

I do know that the entire time I was watching this accident unfold, I was thinking that I could have either corrected that slide or at least taken that vehicle off of the road. The first thing I did when I saw the SUV starting to slide sideways was to reach down and hit the 4 wheel drive switch. Even with pumping the brakes and going off of the road, we never slid or had any hint of loosing control.

[Diceman]

I bet a lot of the people in the wreck were not from the area.
I'm sure the ones we saw involved mainly tourists from other, warmer states.
When you see sleet, hail, snow and rain and are going up and down mountains, I would think you should know the 65 and 75 mph laws do not apply.

[Green Mountain]

The scariest part of any trip is the drive. Glad you guys escaped it.

We are in Utah as I write this. The Hotel we are in has a computer so this is a short post.

Having a wonderful time, wish you were here!!!!