Wreck on Interstate 80 should be warning to all

Even if you don't believe in miracles, you must admit that a 100-vehicle pileup in a winter storm with not one death and with no life-threatening injuries is, well, miraculous.
Indeed, with all the good Samaritan stories being told, the clash of steel Sunday morning on Interstate 80 in Mercer County has a certain Christmas quality to it. As Dr. Cathy White-Owen, who witnessed the semi-trucks, vans, SUVs and cars slam into each other, told a Vindicator reporter, "There were definitely angels out there today." Dr. White-Owen works in the trauma unit at Southwest General Hospital in Cleveland and was on her way home from Pittsburgh with her son, Robert.
"There were cars on their roofs and people were crawling out of them unhurt," she said, after accompanying Pennsylvania State Police along the two-mile accident scene in the westbound lanes. "It's incredible that more people weren't hurt."
Incredible still was the fact that only a few people had injuries serious enough to require hospital treatment.
So, when survivors of the region's traffic story of 2004 gather with family and friends and re-live that heart-stopping incident, they'll talk about the young man in a dark jacket running along the right shoulder of the road waving his arms. That warning could well have saved the lives of James Ott, 50, his wife, Sherry, and their dog.
The family from Dunkirk, N.Y., were in their Dodge truck, hauling a 27-foot trailer.
'Amazing'
"It was an amazing, weird thing -- just a miracle, really," said Ott, of seeing the young man and knowing that "something bad was going on." Ott says he never found out the good Samaritan's name, but his actions "probably kept 25, 30 cars from wrecking."
And they'll talk about Sara Fischer of Beaver, Pa., who was thrown onto the pavement when a truck ripped off the passenger door of the van driven by her father, Mark. A paper roll from a second truck that struck the van landed on Sara, pinning her. Seven people lifted the roll off her.
Yes, it is the season of brotherly love.
But the pileup also highlighted an earthly reality: Winter storms can and do cause havoc. Thus the need for drivers to be ever cautious, especially when traveling through the nation's snowbelt. It doesn't matter if you have an all-wheel drive monster SUV, or have the top-of-the-line snow tires on your vehicle, when the road is as icy as a hockey rink there isn't much you can do. And if you're driving fast, forget about it.
On the other hand, slowing down gives you greater control of your vehicle should you have to come to a sudden stop -- and increases your chances of avoiding disaster.
A number of factors contributed to Sunday's pileup, according to Ken Pochatko, an official with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, including wet and snowy roads, sudden squalls and drivers who aren't trained to drive in winter conditions.
Since most of us haven't taken the time to learn the finer points of driving in wintry weather, caution and commonsense should be our guide.