Yesterday, on Route 93, which for southern New Hampshire -- indeed, most of New Hampshire -- is the main north-south artery, disaster struck in the form of a 40+ car pile-up, creating a traffic jam that stretched for miles in both directions. Now, this hardly compares to the 9-day traffic jam recently reported near Beijing, but when you're late for work or conversely, are after a long day at the office and just want to get home, it's annoying enough. Luckily, nobody was killed and nobody was seriously injured. The byline to this story read, "Bad Weather Caused Major Crash, Police Say."
There were some cultural assumptions built into that statement. New England drivers -- Massachusetts moreso than most, though this trait is apparent throughout the region -- seem to believe that cars are only capable of going either 5mph or 75mph; nothing in between. It just wouldn't have occurred to the drivers yesterday morning on Route 93, who were driving in a long-predicted snow storm (which had actually turned out milder than forecasted), to slow down in white-out conditions. Now, accidents can happen anywhere and they can catch any of us unawares, but did 40(+) separate accidents happen yesterday on Route 93? Of course not; you had drivers who just wanted to get home who chucked caution to the wind and went the speed they'd normally drive in the summer on icy roads in near-blizzard conditions, and were shocked -- Shocked, I tell you! -- to find themselves in an accident. While 40 is a bit unusual, multi-car accidents are surprisingly common in New England, and I am not alone in attributing it to the local mentality that physics (or laws) be damned, people have a right to drive 75 mph regardless of road conditions.
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