There is no way I'm staying in a vehicle in that situation. Let's assume you have crashed into the vehicle in front of you, your airbags have gone off, and your front crumple zone has done its job. Now someone hits you from behind. No airbags, no front crumple zone to protect you from the vehicle in front of you. Now, presuming you survived, you have no rear protection, either. The next impact will start crushing the passenger compartment, and if you're not out of there, you with it.
Personally, I'm always ready to bail to one side or the other, especially with limited visibility and/or traction. I've had to do it, I'll drive off the shoulder before hitting someone in front of me. Whatever you hit off the side won't be any worse than the stopped vehicle in front. I was amazed when watching the videos that no one appeared to even try to to drive off the shoulder. And some of those semis were going way too fast considering the visibility and road surface.

 

No such thing as luck. It was Smart, along with the guy behind me who got out.

I cannot think of one situation, other than an electric line down where it would be safer to stay in the vehicle

 

Or you could not be in that pile up to begin with.

 

I spent a couple years around road racing (SCCA type stuff). The rule is stay in your car. Do you think you are going to be able to dodge cars coming at you on foot on an icy road? There are some rare occasions where it is safer out of the car, and this pileup probably had some individual situations where you could get to a safe place and be better off, but I would think you'd be safer in the car in most situations.

 

Kevin Ward got out of his car.

 

I guess my logic is that if you exit your vehicle you have no protection. You are naked, so to speak. While it is true that you can run to safety, I'm guessing in the conditions this happened (icey, snow, white out) it would take a good 15-20 seconds to get out of your car, run to the shoulder and run into the median 50-75 feet. In that 15-20 seconds, if you get hit, you will most likely die. We saw in that first video cars that tried to brake and were sliding right down the shoulder.
At least the vehicle offers some sort of protection. In those same 15-20 seconds, there may have been 3-4 cars already run into the back of your car. From that point on, you are pretty much safe because those 3-4 cars + will absorb most of the impact from there on out.

 

In a pile-up situation, I believe I would get out and see if anyone needs help while watching for more piling-up, but that may not be safe. I vote getting out and getting FAR off the road!

 

The thing I see is how those people DID NOT drive defensively! Bad weather, slow down!! Poor visibility, SLOW DOWN even more. As I never drove in snow/ice conditions , I would NOT drive at all!

Just this morning, we had pea soup fog, I slowed down to 30 to 35 MPH till it cleared. Some nimrod tried to pass me, well he/she ALMOST hit a car head on. Who ever it was got the scare of a live time and pulled over....probly needed new underware after that!

As for staying inside a wreck, its a toss up to bail or stay inside. Depends on the moment.

 

He also ran TOWARDS a car

 

I'm with Brad--get out if you can. Use the accident as your protection--get in front of it, but off the road. Vehicles that hit the pile-up will only send the already-wrecked vehicles so far.

I see semis over-driving the weather (and traffic) all the time. I live right next to I-65, and within 20 miles either direction, it gets shut down at least once a week, more during the winter, usually due to a semi rollover. Before my friend moved his shop, I would take the interstate to go to his shop to plow snow, and when I thought 35-40 MPH was the safe limit on the interstate mid-storm, semis would still be doing 60+ MPH.

Jason

 

Eddiec1564 you aren't kidding it was thick as all get out. Its amazing how people will not slow down. Or how down here people will drive with their flashers on in a down pore doing 30 in the fast lane. that's just asking to be rear ended.

 

The best thing you can do is stay in your vehicle when a major accident occurs. It lets rescue personnel actually get to you quicker instead of wondering if you were one of the ones that ran away or if you were thrown from your vehicle and are laying somewhere dying under another vehicle someplace.It's a waist of their time trying to find where you're at if you're NOT injured. The only reason you should ever leave is if you are in immediate danger because of fire, gas leaking, your car is flipped over, ect, ect. Another reason would be if you have been trained in first aide and CPR. Then your services would almost definitely be useful to others.

 

Hell no. I would try and DRIVE out of there. Now if my truck was badly damaged and could no longer move under it's own power then yeah you bet I am OUT, I'll beat feet towards the nearest treeline for protection from flying parts and vehicles.

At least here in FL I would as there is usually some trees nearby. Up there I don't know, but I would still try and run for cover. Nobody's making a sammich out of me if I can help it!

 

There's no one size fits all answer here. Generally it's safer in the car, but in a multi car pileup you're going to get hit repeatedly which can overwhelm the cars ability to protect you. On the other hand if you can't quickly get out of danger on foot then you risk being hit outside the car which would almost certainly be fatal.

I think people weren't going for the side because they couldn't. They panicked and smashed the brakes and even with abs, stability control, all wheel drive, etc you're just going to plow forward. You need to react fast, get off the brakes and steer for the ditch. Also I'll be few of those cars had winter tires which limits traction further.

The minute you know you're going to be in a multi car pileup in the snow or other bad/slick weather you need to head for a side and then possibly get out and move to safety. I think it's noble to say you'd grab flares and put them out to slow cars down, but in reality by the time you did that dozens of cars would be added to the pile and there's a good chance you've got run over. Save the heroics for when the cars stop piling up.

 

Get OUT and get AWAY!