Two weeks ago this afternoon, an inch and a half of snow fell in Western Maryland.
It should have been no big deal. Snow has been falling in that location, near Myersville in Frederick County, since long before there was a Maryland.
What was different this time was that some of that snow fell on Interstate 70. Sometime after the snow began falling, there occurred a chain-reaction crash involving 47 vehicles, including six tractor-trailers. Two women died in the pileup. At least a dozen people were seriously injured. The Associated Press, quoting a state police spokeswoman, reported that "snow was at least partly to blame."
Interesting. Will Mr. Snow face manslaughter charges? How else do we hold Mr. Snow accountable?
Defense counsel, of course, could point out that snow is merely a frozen form of dihydrogen monoxide, quite inanimate, and thus unable to form the requisite intent to be held criminally liable under Maryland law. Nor could its actions be construed as negligent because Mr. Snow's job is to fall upon the Earth's surface.
Of course, "snow to blame" is merely a form of shorthand for what the state police were actually saying: that "inclement weather may have been a contributing factor." But that "blame" terminology reflects a dangerous mental sloppiness in our perception of traffic crashes. Collectively, we stretch to find causes other than human stupidity, carelessness and bad behavior to explain collisions.
Thus, a Google search of chain-reaction crashes shows that Mr. Snow and his cronies Mr. Fog, Mr. Rain and Mr. Ice have a long record of blame for such catastrophes. Even Messrs. Reindeer got in on the mayhem. The animals were reported to have "caused" a six-vehicle chain reaction in Minnesota that started while they were in a trailer. Neat trick, Blitzen.
Homicidal ruminants notwithstanding, few traffic "accidents" are entirely beyond our control. Yes, in the odd case a driver might have a heart attack or a suicidal deer might leap in front of a car traveling at a sensible speed. But usually you can point the finger at good old human error in one of its abundant forms.
That is especially true with these chain-reaction pileups in challenging weather conditions. The original sin in these crashes is almost always somebody's attempt to drive too fast for conditions. It doesn't matter what the posted speed limit is. When snow, ice and fog are in the picture, traveling the speed limit can be as reckless as driving drunk.
