Stuck in the backup: A firsthand account

KAUKAUNA - What began as a bright, sunny Friday morning quickly turned into a scary situation as I made my way up Highway 41 from the Appleton area.

As I turned onto 441 northbound from Highway CE, the sun was shining. But as soon as I hit the Fox River, I was suddenly surrounded by fog. There were patchy spots along 441 and 41, and traffic began to move more and more slowly.

About 7:40 a.m., I was moving through Little Chute and Kaukauna. The fog was so thick I could see only 20 yards or less. A car in front of me pulled away, and its taillights disappeared. Suddenly, a pair of taillights appeared in front of me and I slammed on the brakes, hoping the pickup truck behind me wouldn’t plow into me. I came up on a tanker truck, with cars pulled over onto the shoulder on either side of the road. I stopped, hoping it would just be a momentary backup.

I was wrong.

About five minutes in, I called our assignment desk to let the station know I would be running late. Our assignment manager, Brian, told me there was a large pileup in Kaukauna, and asked me where I was. I told him I had been so focused on the road, I had lost track of where I was. I looked over and could see the sign for Exit 148 – which turned out to be Highway 55.

We sat there. And sat there. I was behind a tanker truck and couldn’t see around it, so I poked my head out the window. That didn’t help much, because the fog was so thick I couldn’t see too much past the truck. A couple of squad cars made their way through the backup and pulled over to the side of the road. They turned off their lights, so I figured we were some distance behind the crash. There was nothing left to do but wait – a very helpless feeling.

I decided to take out my station-issued mini-camera and shoot some video of what I could see, which wasn’t much. (Click the "Play" button to the left to watch the video.) The station called and asked me to do a live phone interview, which we did. Only then did I learn the pileup involved more than 20 cars. I figured I’d be there for a while, so I shut off my car to save gas.

Waiting. More waiting. Finally, the truck driver in front of me moved forward a few feet. Could the highway be cleaned up?

No.

More waiting. After another 45 minutes or so, I could see a police officer start to talk to some of the drivers behind me – and directing them off the road onto Highway 55. Right then, the station called for me to do another live phone interview. As I was on the phone with Rachel Manek, the officer came to my car and told me I could turn around and leave the highway. I told Rachel I’d have to let her go, since I certainly wanted to have both hands on the wheel for this drive. I glanced at the clock; it was 8:55. I was stuck for more than an hour.

Leaving the highway was probably the scariest part, since I was heading the “wrong way” back to the exit ramp and I could only hope there weren’t any cars coming at me. I could see a squad car with its lights on at the off-ramp, but nothing else. I took the ramp down to 55, where a firefighter was directing traffic.

I turned left to go north on 55 toward Freedom. Going past the old dog track and Highway JJ, traffic was moving around 30 miles per hour. Only when I got two or three miles north of Kaukauna did it start to clear up.

A drive that normally takes half an hour took me two hours. I was anxious to get into work and start making sure fox11online.com was updated – and to learn more about what happened. As I got out of the situation and into work, my thoughts turned to those who were involved in the crash. As scary as my morning was, it could have been a whole lot worse.