I-35 pile-up caught on camera (multiple semi's involved) 

I feel bad for the car at the left who avoided hitting anyone, just to get plowed into by the 2nd semi.

What I have learned from this is if you are right next to a pile up do your best to drive as far forward as you can rather than just park right next to the pile up

that median cable CLEARLY showed how dangerous it is, those 3 cars on the left side all got screwed over BECAUSE of the cable.

Suprised how close the cable barriers are in the states to the road. In BC, Canada the cables are in the very middle of the ditch, the car has a chance to slow down in the grass/dirt before hitting the barrier + there's more room to avoid accidents or more space to pull over if needed

I was right behind this when it happened. I’m also a trucker and tons of people were driving WAY too fast for conditions. I ended up being on duty for nearly 16 hours because of this.

What really impressed me is how quickly that second semi (the first one that hit the Prime semi) was able to slow down. It looks like he reacts just one and a half truck lengths away and still ended with a just a (relatively) gentle bump against the rear of jackknifed trailer. Especially since it looked like that trailer was trying to slide out as well. Either they've got some excellent brakes on truck and trailer, some incredible driving skills, or both.

This was an example of why not to have the cables. There’s many examples of cables helping but this wasn’t one of them.

I hope no one ever runs into those cables with a motorcycle.

the median cables did not prevent anything, but caused 3 additional vehicles and likely their passengers from being damaged. each vehicle turned onto the grass to avoid collision but the fence steered them back into harms way.

As the passenger in the Ford Explorer that got ping-ponged between the semi and pickup truck…. Not a fan of those cables in this situation 😅 We and the pickup truck got stuck on the cables and couldn’t get around the jackknifed semi truck.

I would prefer those wire barriers be closer to the CENTER. this would permit cars to EVADE the pile up more successfully instead of destroying their cars. the wires would still do their thing but not cause damage that might otherwise be avoided. Andromeda Galaxy already addressed this in his pinned post. (edit)

As mentioned by others the cable barrier being too close to the road way increased the number of vehicles involved as well as the amount of damage. Vehicles were unable to avoid damage from the jack knifed truck or the barrier

I totally disagree with the narrator. That last 18-wheeler plowed through that cable barrier like it wasn't even there. What kept him from going into oncoming lanes was him turning the steering wheel to the right. All the cable barriers do is destroy smaller vehicles. The trucks go right through them

I see the median cable unfortunately also prevented any skilled drivers from avoiding collision by hitting the ditch and going around and instead ensured they became part of the pileup.

As a motorcyclist, those cables terrify me.

All could have been avoided if people just slow down and leave distance but nope. I own the road and you all be damned.

Several vehicles would have avoided collisions if the cable barrier had been placed in the center of the median. It caused more damage than it prevented.

We have similar barriers in Australia, and yes they do prevent vehicles crossing into the wrong side... But in a situation like this where you would be better off going wide, you are simply railroaded with no way to avoid what's in front of you. It also makes life dangerous for broken down vehicles as they can't get far enough away from the traffic flow. Needless to say they are quite controversial here...

Cable successfully destroyed 3 vehicles who would have coasted in the median otherwise.

Those cable barriers caused more damage to the vehicles and made the situation much worse. The pickup and first car were in ZERO danger of going into the opposite lane of traffic and could have/would have avoided being in an accident at all but the cables kept them in harm's way.

Driver inattention, and excessive speed for road conditions, contribute to most of these incidents. Slow down, and maintain situational awareness. Allow extra distance between your vehicle, and the vehicle ahead of you.

The cable barrier should have been in the middle this makes me realize.

I'm retired now and have been for about 6 years after running over the road for 42 years. I would definitely slow down and try to keep my distance behind the vehicle in front of me on roads like this. I never had a jack knife but came close a few times after cars would cut me off and either turn or stop. I remember once going thru a small town and a lady came zipping around me and turned on her turn signal to make a right turn into a fast food restaurant . I was grossing right under the limit of 80000 pounds. I hit my brakes of course . Two little faces were looking at me out of her back window and waving! Somehow I missed her but I had to pull over until my legs quit shaking!

Installing the “safety” cables so close to the road is the most stupid thing I’ve seen. Could you imagine the consequences if instead of hitting the cables with an SUV, you hit it with a motorcycle?

As a OTR driver, during inclement weather(rain, snow, fog) SLOW DOWN, turn on your hazard lights if approaching a slow down or stopped traffic to indicate to the driver behind you that is what you are doing. If there is an accident, & you are not involved but close to the impact site, move out of the middle & drive to the closest shoulder. Leave your hazard lights ON. If your vehicle has been hit, stay inside & don't move if you have been injured. Only move if your vehicle is on fire or is in danger of being crushed/pinned. In winter, you must drive defensively to protect you & your loved ones. ALWAYS WEAR YOUR SEATBELT, HEADLIGHTS ON WHEN ITS RAINING & BE PATIENT!!! EVERYONE WANTS TO GET HOME ALIVE...

Let them have their fun in snow..... As of November-29 it was my last load to deliver... 5 years is enough dealing with stupidity... Sending much love from Miami...

"It stopped cars from sliding into oncoming lanes." Not really, it stopped them from escaping from those trucks and locked the first vehicle in its position, blocking the entire width of the road (all while making a nice amount of shrapnel). Yes, it does a job: stopping vehicles. No, it does not do the job: stopping vehicles if they must be stopped. I get that you can't just simply put the cable as far as possible and expect it to stop speeding vehicles, but you gotta leave some room for a vehicle wanting to just get off the road and go for some distance to escape from others when something suddenly blocks the road. Also that third truck going that fast under those weather conditions...

that type of wire barrier is deadly for people on Motorcycles :(

The Cable system didn't do anything to prevent more damage in this instance.

As a professional driver, I can tell you that those cables are definitely NOT for safety... Those are designed to cripple your vehicle and have contributed to numerous fatalities..

The cables might have kept vehicles from going into oncoming lanes, but it also kept vehicles from avoiding the crash, altogether. I don't think any of those vehicles were going fast enough to really run all the way over into oncoming traffic.

In my view that median fence caused more damage then it stopped as there is no reason to believe that any of those vehicles would have made it down into the gully and back up the other side into oncoming traffic as proved by the last semi which did enter the gully but came nowhere near ever getting to the oncming traffic, and that wasn't because of the fence which was already down from the two pickup trucks hitting it.

As the driver in the Ford Explorer (the first black SUV you see come into the frame following the black Silverado and initially getting stopped behind the prime inc trailer) if it weren’t for the cable guard rail, the Silverado and myself would have been able to make it safely around the jack knifed trailer… the cable guard rail created the dangerous situation where we were slammed into the back and spun around by the Saralee semi. My only option was to take the median because the white semi pushed me out of my lane and he even love tapped the jack knifed trailer.

I was a state trooper for two years in OH. I’ve had my CDL for over three years now. The overwhelming majority of the public who drive do not know how to drive AT ALL , IN DRY CONDITIONS, let alone rain, snow or ice. Do yourself a favor and do not speed unless you have to get away from people who like to hover and bunch up in traffic. Always assume NO ONE SEE’s YOU, ALWAYS ASSUME THEY’RE NOT PAYING ATTENTION TO TRAFFIC and ALWAYS ASSUME THEY’RE DISTRACTED. My first nine months as a trooper I investigated 13 fatal crashes, three of them double fatal. Every last one of those crashes were due to drunk driving, speeding, fatigued driving and distracted driving. Driving is the most dangerous deadliest and involves the most risk statistically worldwide. I arrested so many drunk drivers, some two times in one day or in a 48 hour span, investigated so many drunk fatal or serious injury crashes that even the smell or being in the presence of alcohol bothers me. Once you smell the smell of alcohol, twisted metal, plastic and the stench of exposed human flesh and organs it never goes away. Please be careful on the roads this upcoming holiday. Everyone thinks or believes it’ll never happen to them. The hardest part of that life was giving death notifications to the next of kin literally as soon as you clear a crash scene. Although there are some asshole troopers out there, trust me a lot of these men and women have seen a lot. The least you can do, when you see them on the side of the road with their emergency lights activated, GET THE FUCK OVER AND AWAY FROM THEM, PAY ATTENTION TO THE ROAD AND STOP TEXTING AND FUCKING DRIVING.

these truck drivers are 100% guilty in these jackknifes. They are more responsible than Rogel Aguilera-Mederos. Any deaths caused by these truck drivers because they refuse to slow down in snowy- icy weather are 100% on their shoulders and deserve jail time.

I'm a truckdriver for 19 years , and I Know there's truck Driver that should not have cdl license , they know the condition of the road and they still drive fast , ignoring the conditions and making the roads dangerous , I can tell safety was not use here , slow down be safe or get off the road

The median barrier created an unexcapable choke point and caused more vehicles to be involved. The median barrier needs to be in the middle of the median and not next to the travel way.

The cable barrier also prevented drivers from moving out of the way of the 3rd semi. Cable barriers are terrible, death traps to motorcyclist.

The solution for the cables is to split the roads instead of placing them alongside the road. The cables would still be effective if they were 5ft-10ft into the grass. They don't need to be hugging the road...

I disagree. Those cable barriers didn’t prevent anyone from going into oncoming traffic in this situation. They just did more damage to the vehicles.

All I'm going to say is people were driving TOO FAST for conditions. (Looks like the PRIME semi truck driver).

Those cables are bad news for motorcyclists.

Cable barrier? It's the first time I've seen one of those and as a motorcyclist it's absolutely terrifying. Terrible idea.

This actually shows the downfall of that type of barrier cars were not able to get around the accident creating more crashes

29 years OTR, I've seen cars hit those cables and when they hit their stretch limit, propel the car back into traffic and almost hit one when he passed me on slick roads, lost control, hit the cable and got thrown sideways across the road. I don't know what the prevented crossover vs made it worse proportions are but to me it looked like the cable stopped the 3 cars that went onto the shoulder only to have the semi hit them. The 2nd and 3rd one appeared to be in control until they hit the cable and it forced them back into line behind the first car.

I've seen those cable barriers open a car up like a pop can. Caught below the door and ripped the pillars, passenger doors and roof up on a 45° angle.

Crashes happen when everyone's driving like the sun's out on a dry road.

Those cables held cars in place just so semis could come along and smash into them. They otherwise would have went round. They effectively create an unwanted net trap for multiple vehicle collisions. The same will happen every time the road is blocked by a jackknife or similar and there’s traffic coming. Ideas have to suit all circumstances, so just build a wall to divide apposing traffic.

Negative if that barrier wasnt there the trailer would have kept spinning around 180° and the semi would be the ONLY One stuck because the road would have been clear. But that barrier stop it dead in tracks basically......

I have to call B.S., MN Safety. The cable barrier "limited lateral movement" so much that it trapped three vehicles at the back of the jackknifed semi and held them there to be struck by the third semi. That isn't any kind of commendable safety practice. Those people were incredibly lucky to get out of there unhurt, and they still sustained secondary damage that they might have avoided without that barrier.

Cable Barriers were a large part of the problem here.

Most of the pileup was caused by a lack of lateral movement for vehicles trying to avoid the crash. The "Median Barrier" would be safer and more effective as two, spaced cables running down the center of the median, which would allow safer lateral movement, for each lane, as well as protection to oncoming traffic.

1:08 EXTREMELY rare those guide wires protect for the purpose they were installed for. I used to work road rescue for a towing company and 9 out of 10 times a car would hit those, it would cut the person in half. trust me.. im sitting there waiting for emts to leave and then i clean up the road and haul the cars to the yard... the seats are cut horizontally and blood everywhere.

The barriers prevented vehicles from escaping the accident. Don't know what it is about primes in green trucks jack knifeing, don't be around one on slick roads. The local grain hauler got screwed, if he had another 10 feet of stopping distance he would have been unscathed. My next comment is you 4 wheelers being in the left lane when yall should stay in the right lane.

As the wife of a truck driver, these types of incidents just stop my heart. I'm so thankful that there weren't any injuries, and everyone got to go home to family that night. Thank you, MN Safety for doing voice overs on the videos now! It makes watching the videos so much easier now! Keep up the great work! 💜💜

Ridiculous, especially the cars coming after the second truck. Everyone there was going way too fast especially for road conditions

- Seems to me that that median cable barrier almost caused those two vehicles behind the jackknife to become compactor fodder when the 3rd truck flew in. -

30+ years driving trucks, respect the road

Moral of this Story to me is : Just because you narrowly avoided one accident , doesnt mean that there isnt another one coming up fast in your rear view mirror . I drove Big Trucks for over 35 years including '48 ny state thruway double van trailers . That cable should be closer to the center to allow drivers an escape route .

Cable systems hinder escape routes to avoid accidents. This video is a clear example of that. People say that this is an example of "how the barrier properly worked" because it "contained" the accident. I believe it makes things worse, If you're an ALERT driver that is competent and able to make sound decisions to avoid without incident, you can't because your options to escape are zero. The best you can do with a cable system is stop safely and pray the idiots behind you stop in time........ I don't know about you but there are a lot of idiot drivers out there that don't have a clue what they are doing out there on the roads.

In this instance the cables made everything worse from the trailer not being able to come around to holding up the four wheeers

The grain hauler did a great job of showing how a pro brings his rig to a controlled stop.

That median cable barrier failed, the 1st semi took it out completely, then the 1st pickup destroyed the rest of it so it was virtually useless. The only reason the 2nd semi didn't crash across the median was down to a low speed - so no I don't agree with the comment that the cable barrier stopped further accidents

Looks like to me the most effective part of the cable system was that it insured that the pickup was completely destroyed. That was it's biggest contribution.

This is terrifying. I'm a trucker who lives 15 minutes away from here, and drives that corridor all the time. Glad I didn't go through there that day

The median cable barrier makes it so people are trapped as penned up sheep with no way to avoid the 80,000 pound semi barreling towards their rear end. The cable barriers are death traps. They shouldn't be used.

Seems to me that the retaining cable along the left side of the road caused more problems for everyone. I would be pissed if I wasn't able to go around on the left side and then climb back on the highway and keep moving.

No, I think those cables are more destructive to your car. If they weren’t there, you could easily drive and slide around the wreck without going into on coming traffic.

Poor assessment. Those cables near the passing lane sabotaged the suvs and trucks on the left side of the roadway. They couldn't drive out of the way and were sitting ducks that ended up getting rocked by the second semi.

The cable barrier should be down in the middle of the median centered for both directions of traffic not up by the shoulder on one side where it acts like a cattle corral with no room for escape.

Those cables are more a detriment than an aid. As you can see the cable caused more damage than it prevented.

The Ames crashes and pile up that happened a few years ago was mainly because their was NO place to pull over because of the guardrail to the right and wire fencing to the left and just kept piling up...

So, you avoid crashing with a semi and a few cars, and then you *stop* on the only place the traffic behind you can go- brilliant.

This is what happens when trucking companies abuse their good drivers all they are left with are amateurs'.

This is why you must be super careful in snowy weather.

Amazing how people still drive in these conditions! Snowing/raining can’t see more than 20 feet in front of you. Yeah perfectly fine for running 70 mph.

The barrier saved my life earlier this year! Messed my bumper up, but we were safe! It was an icy road morning that day! Oh yeah the car before me slid and totaled their car.

What they taught us in Truck Driver School............. Allow one vehicle length in front of you for every 10 MPH of speed. So if in a car - that should be 5 car lengths at 50 MPH. So if in a semi - that should be 5 semi lengths at 50 MPH. Doesn't look like any of these behind vehicles were using that rule.

Drivers are devolving. All the safety features in vehicles are helping people become less safe and less wise.

o its bad conditions for driving? I AM STILL GOING TO DRIVE FAST BECAUSE I AM SELFISH AND DON'T THINK ANYTHING WILL HAPPEN TO ME🤡

Extensive testing of various high guardrail/ fixed barriers like k block and cable barriers have proven that cable barriers are the least effective and in fact do not even come close the providing anything like the other barriers in terms of effectiveness for safety. You will never see cable barriers used on mountain roads. Cable barriers absolutely suck.

The cable barrier is also ridiculously hard to see. Plus the artic just ploughed right through it with the car taking the brunt of the lorry and the high tensile cable. Better like we have in the U.K. a central crash barrier where the lorry ended up after hitting the car. It allows speed to bleed off as you go onto the grass and allows evasive manoeuvres. This was far too restrictive and dangerous with a jack knifed lorry blocking all escape routes

The trucker that jack knifed appeared to be going way too fast for conditions. His impatience created a traffic backup and could have resulted in fatalities. Slow down people!

Whenever you are involved in an accident on a highway, move away ASAP! It is a matter of seconds until incoming vehicles will crash into you. This is the most important lesson which should be taken from this video.

It would help tremendously if drivers would slow way down and drive for the slick conditions, too. All that could have been avoided completely if folks would think before they speed on slick roads.

The cables are bloody dangerous. Perhaps if they were further from the road edges they may help but the second someone goes over the lines they’re in the wire. And the way they are setting them up ( in Australia) they are flipping trucks and killing more drivers and motorbike riders or the truck are just riding straight over them

I'm in disagreement of them putting up that cable barrier all across the country. It also kept people from being able to drive past the crash because that table fence was in the way. I think it has been put up for control of the traffic.

Cable Barriers simply keep more people involved in the crash for longer. No escape. Why limit the damage to 3 cars when you can turn it into a 70 vehicle bloodbath.

Wire barriers do stop vehicles from travelling into oncoming traffic, but it also caused more collisions in this case as vehicles who had slowed sufficiently were unable to move out of the path of following traffic.

What's frightening is the number of people NOT paying attention to the road and NOT driving with sufficient space in front of them, and thus they slide into a collision.

The barrier cables should be exactly in the middle of the median instead of so close to the pavement a couple of those cars would have skated right past and not been damaged at all if the cable would have been in the middle.

Notice how fast the 3rd truck was going. Dangerous road conditions means you slow down not speed up.

The cable barrier worked but man the damage it did to the black pickup.

Excerpted from an article in the 'Star Tribune' newspaper from March 17, 2014: "Sometimes they (cable barriers) are in the middle of the median, and other times they are right up against the traffic lanes and jump from one side of the highway to the other. Why the difference?" "While many barriers run right down the middle of the median, that isn’t always the best place. The middle is often a low spot, so there’s a “distinct possibility” of an errant vehicle vaulting over the cables. The soils are often poor, said Kent Barnard of MnDOT (the Minnesota Department of Transportation)." "If one direction of the freeway is higher than the other, that side of the median gets the cable. Engineers also review which side of the road has had more drivers zooming into the median. They’ll place the cable on the opposite side to give the veering drivers more room to recover on their own, Barnard said."

Even driving defensively can't eliminate the real possibility of being involved in events like these. Scary

Driver of 3rd semi: "Looks like a whole bunch of folks in an accident up ahead... still I'm an hour behind schedule... It'll be fine!"

This is what happens when idiots don't slow down for conditions. Prime, Swift, and Werner have some of the worst drivers out there.

I was watching Live Storms Media. He was south of this at the next exit. He told us viewers "Trust me" He turned around and went to 46 and headed north to 150th to the overpass. By this time traffic from I-35 South was already going south on 46. So he took us to the accident scene below the overpass.

Nope. Sorry. The cable system not only didn't do anything good here, it's clear that all it did was prevent several vehicles that would have been able to get around the crash on the median and cause them to crash.