Frank Robertson's Blog

It may take quite a while to sort out exactly what caused yesterday's massive pile-up on I-4. We know that thick fog played a huge factor, but investigating agencies are less certain about the role played by smoke from a controlled burn that got of out of control. While its tempting to quickly assign blame, the real goal should be to gain a full understanding of what happened and why.

Fog is a reality in Central Florida at this time of year. The stretch of I-4 where Wednesday's crashes occurred is in a low lying area. Whether smoke compounded the problem or not, wouldn't it make sense to avoid controlled burns at the height of "fog season?"

At the same time, it seems the Department of Transportation should always err on the side of caution and shut down roads when visibility is reduced to nearly  zero.  The technology for close monitoring certainly exists. D-O-T has mounted remote cameras nearly every where. This particular stretch of interstate seems to be a prime location for some of those cameras