I live not too far from here and usually see one or two cars that have spun off of the road during heavy rain. I think the usual culprits are poor road drainage, bad tires and excessive speed. I'm not sure what could have caused this, though.
http://www.wral.com/twenty-five-injured-in-i-40-collisions-in-alamance-county-134-vehicles-damaged/15534622/
Again? There was a major one in west TN on 40 a few years ago.
Sounds like a design issue of the road that needs to be looked at.
I'm not sure what the design issue would be. There's nothing particularly noteworthy about that section of I-40 - the number of travel lanes don't change, no sharp curves, and the onramps and offramps never struck me as having inadequate room to merge in/out.
I thought this thread was going to be about an SM race
Heavy fog sucks.
Radar-based cruise control like many modern cars have would prevent this!
I-40 in the fog is the scariest road I've ever been on. Can't see in front and you know the cars behind you can't see either. Slow down and get rear ended. Don't slow down and pile into someone. Pull off to the side - someone is following your tail lights and someone else is trying to follow them.
In reply to oldtin:
That is a scary situation. My approach to rapidly deteriorating road conditions has always been to slow down and turn on my flashers. If you do it smoothly I find you can help slow the drivers around you. The flashers help locate your car in the fog and make other drivers wake up and pay attention.
The worst fog I have experienced was in the mountains of SoCal... Drops like a blanket. Continuous curvy roads with steep drops on one side, rock walls on the other are no fun.
People tend to overestimate the abilities of themselves and their cars, and drive too fast for conditions.
I was driving from Denver to GJ yesterday. This goes over two 10,000' passes. It snowed.
Colorado has a "traction law" that says you have to have snow tires on passenger vehicles when it's in effect. I-70 - which, by the way, is basically the ONLY way through the mountains without a 3-4 hour detour - was shut down multiple times due to drivers spinning out in the snow as the temperatures dropped. They'd clear the road, open it up and crunch-bang-whee-splat close it again. You could see a bunch of cars sitting at a standstill on the climbs just spinning their wheels. I saw one of the roadside assist trucks going up a pass with two cars on tow straps because they couldn't climb on their own.
As the day went on, they started closing the highway further and further back to keep people off the passes because, despite the traction law, people were just charging into the mess on all-seasons or summer tires.
The DOT was getting flack from people with twitter accounts because the interstate kept getting closed. But really, it was the people who were unprepared for mountains that were causing the problems.
We threaded the needle, got through with closures behind us and ahead of us. Let's hear it for engine braking, good tires and 4WD.
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