Altitude
11-15-2010, 11:21 PM
I was headed up to Denver this morning and I've always been wary of I-25 between the Springs and Denver. The speed limit is 75 which means a lot of people do 90. It can be a treacherous road on the best of days, but today was a perfect storm of Monday morning rush to work drivers, and sudden wintry weather slicking the roads and reducing visibility with little warning.
The first incident happened while I was cruising in the middle lane about 70 feet behind a pickup truck. In my rearview I see this VW Jetta zipping up behind. He cuts into the right lane and keeps speeding up. I knew this was going to be trouble. Sure enough as I kept watching him accelerate in the right lane I soon saw the backend of a semi in the right lane ahead of him. It had been obscured by the big-ass pickup in front of me, but I knew what was going to happen next.
The VW speeds up and attempts to slide in front of the pickup just a few feet from the backend of the semi. He clips the front of the pickup, debris flies and both the car and truck are out of control crossing all lanes of traffic. I'm shitting my pants thinking this is it! Miraculously, both vehicles managed to get it under control and pull to the right shoulder. I had half a mind to stop and beat the crap out of that VW driver.
A few miles later I'm in the left lane when the cars about 80 feet ahead of me begin to react to something and I see the semi that was in the right lane right next to me veering into mine. I'm laying on the horn, driving the shoulder and manage to get in front of the semi only to have to use the brakes to slow down to avoid hitting the cars in front of me. The brakes didn't slow me down as the road surface had become slick from some light and blowing snow and I was on a downhill. This is when I noticed a white Cherokee sitting sideways in the right lane about 70 feet ahead (and the stupid driver of it was standing out in the middle of the highway!!.) The two cars in front of me had collided and I managed to maneuver between them and the Cherokee. The semi was behind me at this point and he managed to squeak through as well.
I found out later that I had just missed a 34 car pileup. Likely at this very spot (I don't know the exact location but given the cars stuck in the middle of the road it has to be the same spot.) See pics here. (http://photos.denverpost.com/mediacenter/2010/11/i-25-pile-up/#7)
Later I saw two more accidents before I finally arrived at my destination. Those two had already happened so I was in no danger.
The worst part was the moment I thought that I was surely going to smash my beloved Yaris to pieces and I had mental flashes of all the members here who have shown pics of their fallen Yarii thinking I would soon join their ranks ( or be dead.) It was not a good day and I'd still love to kick the living crap out of that VW driver.
Idiots! Slow the hell down!
The first incident happened while I was cruising in the middle lane about 70 feet behind a pickup truck. In my rearview I see this VW Jetta zipping up behind. He cuts into the right lane and keeps speeding up. I knew this was going to be trouble. Sure enough as I kept watching him accelerate in the right lane I soon saw the backend of a semi in the right lane ahead of him. It had been obscured by the big-ass pickup in front of me, but I knew what was going to happen next.
The VW speeds up and attempts to slide in front of the pickup just a few feet from the backend of the semi. He clips the front of the pickup, debris flies and both the car and truck are out of control crossing all lanes of traffic. I'm shitting my pants thinking this is it! Miraculously, both vehicles managed to get it under control and pull to the right shoulder. I had half a mind to stop and beat the crap out of that VW driver.
A few miles later I'm in the left lane when the cars about 80 feet ahead of me begin to react to something and I see the semi that was in the right lane right next to me veering into mine. I'm laying on the horn, driving the shoulder and manage to get in front of the semi only to have to use the brakes to slow down to avoid hitting the cars in front of me. The brakes didn't slow me down as the road surface had become slick from some light and blowing snow and I was on a downhill. This is when I noticed a white Cherokee sitting sideways in the right lane about 70 feet ahead (and the stupid driver of it was standing out in the middle of the highway!!.) The two cars in front of me had collided and I managed to maneuver between them and the Cherokee. The semi was behind me at this point and he managed to squeak through as well.
I found out later that I had just missed a 34 car pileup. Likely at this very spot (I don't know the exact location but given the cars stuck in the middle of the road it has to be the same spot.) See pics here. (http://photos.denverpost.com/mediacenter/2010/11/i-25-pile-up/#7)
Later I saw two more accidents before I finally arrived at my destination. Those two had already happened so I was in no danger.
The worst part was the moment I thought that I was surely going to smash my beloved Yaris to pieces and I had mental flashes of all the members here who have shown pics of their fallen Yarii thinking I would soon join their ranks ( or be dead.) It was not a good day and I'd still love to kick the living crap out of that VW driver.
Idiots! Slow the hell down!