The Crittenden Automotive Library

Always Automobiles

Always Automobiles

Teenage Hotrodders #11
February 1965

It happened on the Turnpike in a neighboring state. On a section which I have frequently travelled. The collision involving 12 tractor-trailers and three automobiles was the worst since that highway opened eleven years ago. Six truck drivers were killed and and seven person injured, two of them seriously. Now just how did it happen? Is there anything we can learn from such a tragic accident that took place on one of the most modern highways in this country?

The time was 3:20 A.M. which at once accounts for the reason why there were so many tractor-trailers involved in the accident. A fog began to blanket in a given area of the highway. The troopers ordered the 60 mile-an-hour maximum speed reduce to 35 miles along a given section. From a nearby fire department we learned that a smokey dump fire in the meadowlands near the crash site had mixed with the fog to reduce visibility to zero.

We also have a statement from one of the truck drivers whose truck was in the first phase of the accident. He told the police that he had been traveling at 45 to 50 miles an hour. Then he saw a sign warning of a fog and he slowed down to about 35 miles an hour. He continued for a short distance before he was "engulfed in a fog condition with visibility at less than five feet." As he applied his brakes he was struck in the rear by a tractor trailer.

The impact then pushed the truck about 75 feet into a car. When the three vehicles came to rest, the car was off to the right in a ditch. And the two trucks were blocking two of the three lanes on the highway. Ten more tractor-trailers and two more cars then piled up.

Fog is just as much a menace on the highway as it is at the airport and also at sea. We need more money for scientific studies on ways either to prevent fog or to disperse it as it starts to form. When you have been blocked in by a fog with visibility at zero-as I have been-then you get that terrible feeling of fear and helplessness going down the back of your spine. Now what can we do in the meantime?

The standard procedure on highways where there is speed control seems to be to reduce the speed, which means there must be warning signs to the drivers. On other highways it apparently is left to the intelligence of the driver as to what he should do. The driver who is in a hurry doesn't want to lose more time. He figures he can peep ahead.

Assuming for the sake of argument, every car had been going at the proper distance-what happens when you can see about only ten or fifteen feet ahead? Bear in mind that the roadway may become damp and slippery. You have a tough problem and yet it has to be solved. Should every car come at once to a dead stop? If every car-almost every car did this-you could still have accidents as long as one or a few cars went ahead. If somehow you could get every car to come to a complete halt until a signal was given-this might help. We definitely need more scientific and psychological studies on what to do when that fog closes in on the car.

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V is for Violations

The man behind the wheel is the impatient kind of a driver. No sir, he isn't going to wait for that red light to change to green but he already is on his way to keep a date with his girl. Again he stops for a change of light. But he doesn't want to wait so he goes right through the red light. And the next time he doesn't even stop. Then he hears the sound of the siren and a motorcycle officer tells him to pull over to the curb which he does. Now how many traffic violations has he?

He went through the red light three times. That isn't in law just one violation. Legally it is one type of traffic violation repeated three times so that it becomes three violations. Sometimes we have a continuous violation and the law is sensible enough not to keep on giving you repeated tickets. Provided of course, you take the correct measures to see it doesn't happen, again! You are driving at night and suddenly you notice a patrol car telling you by signals to to pull of the road.

"No back lights," said the officer.

You didn't know it. He gives you a ticket. Evidently if you continue driving without those back lights you are still violating the law. What is do? You ask him that question and because he has some sense in the back of his head he may tell you something like this:

"There's a service station down the road about a mile. It's open at this time of night and you can have those lights checked. Follow my car."

Or for safety sake he may follow your way. Or he may tell you have a long distance to go before you can get those lights checked.

"But what if I am stopped again?" you want to know.

Maybe he'll tell you to show the ticket you already got to the other officer. However he can stick to the letter of the law and tell you to just remain put. He will put through a radio call and get a repair truck out to help you. Sure, you will have to pay that additional service charge, but it is worth it. If you want to prevent accidents just remember you are a deadly menace driving at night without those red back lights.

Just recently a young man was charged with 27 traffic violations after a wild two mile chase through a section of my home town. The chase began at a red light and ended in a cellar where two patrolmen arrested this young man. As he was taken to the police precinct station he passed the remark of the year:

"I didn't know you were chasing me."

It took the better part of the afternoon to enter each charge against him into the police blotter. They include the following:

Passing 14 red lights, going the wrong way on two one-way streets, failing to keep to the right, failing to obey a patrolman's order, being an unlicensed driver, driving an unregistered car, driving an uninsured car, and avoiding three warrants charging previous violations.

The earlier violations were for being an unlicensed driver of an unregistered and uninsured car, and misappropriating lost property-someone else's license plates. The police stated that the young man was not charged with speeding because his pursuers were so intent on catching him that they failed to clock his rate-off officially. The two police officers concerned with this case were in their patrol car when they saw him drive right through the first red light at a corner intersection.

They ordered him to "pull over" but instead he stepped on the gas and the chase was on! The driver went so fast around curves that the wheels of his car left the ground twice on one side. But two miles and 14 red lights later, the driver jumped from his car and tried to run away on foot. He was then chased six blocks more on foot by the other two police officers before he was captured in an empty cellar in which he ran.

He was arraigned in Night Court and the Judge listened 10 minutes as the clerk read the charges. Then bail was set for a hearing in the Criminal Court. Something sort of tells me he is going to pay a fine and get free board at the expense of the city for some time. The wonder of it all is that he didn't smash into other cars or injured pedestrians in that mad chase.

Always remember that when an officer tells you to either pull over to the curb or to the side of the road do so. Don't panic and step on the gas and try to beat him. He'll catch up with you. If you think you can outdistance him just remember all he has to do is call in other cars on his radio. For when you are then caught you have additional violations. There's a little story that's made the rounds. It goes like this in one version:

The officer told the youth to stop his car. The youth just stepped on the gas and gave it all the car had. It was a five mile chase and then he was stopped. He broke down and wept like a baby. Finally he realized he had to take his medicine.

"What did I do wrong in the first place, officer?" He asked.

"I just wanted to help you," sighed the officer. "You didn't lock your back trunk door and it was rattling."

Never run away from the scene of an accident. Just stay there until the police arrive. It may not have been your fault. But if you run away, either in your car, or on foot, you have a violation.