Editor's Notebook: It's foggy out there, folks: Be careful

It’s official: Winter is upon us. No, not official winter, as defined by the calendar, but de facto winter, as defined by the weather.

More specifically, by the cold temperatures and the return of treacherous fog.

Tuesday night’s foggy conditions, which carried over into Wednesday morning before clearing for the majority of the day — before returning again Wednesday night — is the perfect recipe for a major pile-up on any one of our local highways, or a deadly crash in town or on our rural roadways.

Three people from Porterville got caught up in a highway crash in the fog early Wednesday morning (see Page 16A for details). Thankfully, none of them were seriously injured, and neither was the driver of one of the other two vehicles involved. The driver of a third vehicle — the one the California Highway Patrol attributes with causing the crash, suffered moderate injuries.

While no one was killed, the crash sent five people to the hospital in Tulare. That’s enough to ruin most people’s day.

The cause of the crash? You guessed it: Someone was driving too fast for conditions.

CHP reports the man who caused the accident, a man from North Hollywood, was driving between 45 and 50 mph when the dense fog dictated a speed of no more than just shy of 30 mph based on visibility at the time: 150 feet.

The other two drivers, including the Porterville woman, were traveling between 5 and 10 mph at the time of the crash.

The news release from the CHP offered a safety tip at the close of the narrative: “In dense fog, drive as if your life depended on it.”
Sound advice, because it does.

-- Contact Editor Glen Faison at 784-5000, Ext. 1040, or gfaison@portervillerecorder.com.