Driving in Low Visibility

[Signtist]

Headed in to work the other Saturday, blue skies and no indication on the news of bad weather. Nephew and I lettered 3 trucks, and it started storming. After the 3rd truck was done, we saw it storming pretty badly. Meh. It's canada in winter. We started working on a coworkers motorcycle, but I thought maybe I should check see what the weather was up to. Internet indicated it was getting worse. We dropped what we were doing and left, he in his truck, I in mine.

It wasn't too bad for the first 5 minutes, or so. He went his way and I went mine. Then I hit zero visibility. Thankfully just for a few seconds. Nephew was less fortunate. He was driving along slowly with everything not too bad, crested a hill, and hit zero visibility. He slowed down, but before he could slow he hit something never saw what it was. Totalled his truck hitting a 2 car collision he never even saw. I hate winter for this reason. We don't have warning always and we don't have the option to stay home every day there is sketchy weather.

[temporal1]

Headed in to work the other Saturday, blue skies and no indication on the news of bad weather. Nephew and I lettered 3 trucks, and it started storming. After the 3rd truck was done, we saw it storming pretty badly. Meh. It's canada in winter. We started working on a coworkers motorcycle, but I thought maybe I should check see what the weather was up to. Internet indicated it was getting worse. We dropped what we were doing and left, he in his truck, I in mine.

It wasn't too bad for the first 5 minutes, or so. He went his way and I went mine. Then I hit zero visibility. Thankfully just for a few seconds. Nephew was less fortunate. He was driving along slowly with everything not too bad, crested a hill, and hit zero visibility. He slowed down, but before he could slow he hit something never saw what it was. Totalled his truck hitting a 2 car collision he never even saw. I hate winter for this reason. We don't have warning always and we don't have the option to stay home every day there is sketchy weather.

it sounds like no one was hurt? vehicles can be replaced somehow.
i’ve had my share of close calls.

low visibility/zero visibility happens - even in warm climates.
when we lived in So Cal, there were occasional heavy rains, wind, sandstorms, and, smoke from forest fires, field fires, etc., can be deadly.

[Signtist]

No one was hurt. If the gentleman he hit had been standing on the other side of the vehicle he struck... as Ernie said. Head for the woods or fields. Standing on the road could easily have been fatal for the individual.

[Sudsy]

We were on our way home from playing in an oldtimer hockey tournament and it started to snow very hard. We managed to find a restaurant to go in and wait to see if the snow let up enough to drive safely. But after some time, it was not letting up so we had to head for home anyway. Just as we left the restaurant a big semi truck headed out in the direction we were going. I had no idea of where we were but I got into the truck's tracks and followed him at what I thought was a safe distance. If he had gone into the ditch I probably would have followed right in behind him. But we made it home.

Another one of my low visibility memories was running into a heavy fog where I couldn't see the hood ornament on my car. I was driving a taxi cab as one of four jobs I had taken on at the same time to make some quick money. I recall driving dangerously (young and not too smart) by driving with my driver door open and following the highway center lines one at a time. But first I had to locate the highway with lines, so I drove on the wrong side of a side road following the edge of the blacktop hoping no one was driving blindly from the other direction.

Glad I made it through these and some other, not too smart, ventures with driving a car in my early years.