NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — Dense fog has plagued Southeast Louisiana for the last few days.
Over the weekend, nearly 20 vehicles were involved in separate crashes along I-10 in Slidell. While the cause of those crashes remains under investigation, State Police point out there was dense fog throughout the area.
On Sunday evening, the the New Orleans Police Department responded to a multi-vehicle crash along the Twin Span Bridge. Several lanes were shut down and DOTD cameras in the area showed heavy fog.
Monday wasn’t much better. The Causeway Bridge was restricted to one lane in both directions with speed reduced because of low visibility from the fog.
WGNO Meteorologist Brantly Keiek explained the dangers of driving in fog.
“When visibility is down to about a quarter of a mile and you’re driving 60 miles per hour, your reaction time is about 15 seconds,” said Keiek. “But when visibility drops down to about 100-feet your reaction time is about one and a half seconds so you’re more susceptible to car crashes if you’re not paying attention or using your low beam lights.”
An area prone to fog: bridges over large bodies of water.
“We’ve had dense fog advisories for a few days now so it’s really important that people heed the advice of meteorologists that are issuing these advisories and warnings,” Keiek added. “As we go through Tuesday, we are looking at severe weather possibly moving through the area. Visibility could be reduced because of heavy rainfall and we could see some issues on the bridges again.”
Mickey Martinez says fog is nothing new for New Orleans, but doesn’t make it any less scary to drive in.
“At night its scary cause it’s like sometimes I can’t even see like 10-feet in front of me, especially if I miss the highways, terrifying,” said Martinez.
Kevin Smith has been heeding the advice of meteorologists and is keeping low beams on.
He advises you to as well.
“Drivers should drive cautiously and slowly and if you have any other fog lights, use them on your car,” Smith said.
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