A 79-year-old man from Nevada lost his life in a five car pileup near Pecos, Texas. According to reporting in the Silver City Sun-News, the accident occurred when a semi crashed into the back of a truck towing a horse trailer. Another truck slammed into the 18-wheeler and then slammed into two other vehicles. In the end, four people were injured and one man was dead. The accident occurred during a dust storm, which reduced the visibility on the road.
Poor Visibility
Low visibility conditions are among the most significant hazards that drivers face when they are on the road. When conditions make it difficult to see a long way down the roadway, it’s easy to get hit by people who are coming toward you and it’s easy to rear-end vehicles that you don’t see before it’s too late. Even the driver of the 18 wheeler, who had the advantage of being very high off of the road, could not see well enough, apparently, to avoid slamming into the truck towing a horse trailer.
What’s telling about this accident is that the primary vehicles involved were both very large. This rather drives home the point that, when visibility is reduced, the danger presented to drivers on the highways increases exponentially, even where normally easily-visible vehicles are concerned. There are ways that you can handle low visibility conditions sensibly.
Best Practices
The first thing to remember about low visibility conditions is that, if you feel unsafe while you’re driving, you absolutely must pull over and wait. You should not continue driving if you don’t feel like you can do so safely.
If you feel like the conditions are bad but not so bad you need to pull over, make certain that you are driving at a speed that would allow you to react to a threat in front of you by the time you saw it. This is just like driving with your headlights on at night. You should never be driving faster than would allow you to stop before you hit furthest point where your headlights are illuminating the road.
Remember to turn your headlights on. Having your headlights on at all times greatly increases the visibility of your car and can prevent many common types of accidents related to visibility, even in perfect driving conditions.
Personal injury attorneys can provide legal help for car crash victims who have been involved in accidents that occurred under any circumstances.
