It happened in my backyard- a 24-hour backup in fairly
mid-weathered Virginia. Interstate 95 between Washington, DC and Richmond, VA
is fragile at the best of times. It serves as a long-distance route connecting the
Northeast to Florida, a commuter route to Washington DC and the inner suburbs,
and local traffic within the suburbs of Prince William and Stafford counties. Add some weather, and it becomes a parking lot.
Despite ample public warnings and morning snow, the road was carrying near normal
weekday afternoon traffic load. The snow came fast in the afternoon, slushing
the highway, stalling cars and jack-knifed trucks. Once the lanes were blocked,
cars stopped and were frozen in like ice cubes.
Why was everyone out of the road? First, there were lots of
trucks delivering cargo. They just happened to be in the wrong place at the
wrong time. Other essential workers were on the road, including nurses and
firefighters headed to their shifts. Many others were told by their employer to
be at work- not considering stay-at-home warnings. I guess these were not the
same employers who offered special time off during the Thanksgiving and
Christmas holidays. There were those who were making a quick grocery run that
turned into a brutal night; and there were travelers conquering distance, or so
they hoped. GPS blindness put those cars on the road– many long-distance
drivers paid excessive attention to their electronic navigation aids and the
often-optimistic Estimated Times of Arrival (ETA). Those ETAs are estimates,
and drivers, like air pilots and mariners, need to look outside the window for a
reality check.
What were the human factors? Why ignore the warnings? Some
never received them. While tornadoes and hurricanes call for Emergency Alerts broadcasted
to every cellphone, mass notification about this storm did not reach atomized
groups. Complacency in one’s rolling fortress: exhibiting style over substance,
not all large vehicles today are designed for heavy weather driving.
And, for the past two years, propensity to ignore public
health and safety warnings. I guess that once you decide that legitimate coronavirus
information is “fake news”, blizzards are the next threat to ignore.
