One year ago, Congress defunded public media. Now that we're 100% community funded, please become a sustaining member or increase your existing membership today.
This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.
This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.
Visual Proof There Are More Car Crashes In L.A. When It Rains
In case you didn't get the memo yesterday, it was raining HARD (for L.A. standards) yesterday, and drivers were all aflutter. Traffic was hellish on the early morning commute, and we can definitely blame the rain for that one.
Since we hadn't had rainfall in such a long time, the National Weather Service sent out a warning about driving on the slick roadways that had oil build up on on them. Even a McDonald's big rig overturned on the 210 Freeway in Pasadena early Tuesday morning, with some melted dairy seen oozing out of the truck.
Two screenshots of Google Maps traffic above show crashes throughout the Southland. One was taken on Tuesday around 8:40 a.m., and the other this morning at the same, revealing a considerable higher number of crashes while it rained. Yesterday's map was a flurry of red crash icons and yellow exclamation marks, which we're sure just made commuters want to pound their heads on their steering wheels when they saw that.
The California Highway Patrol told the L.A. Times that on Tuesday from 4 a.m. to noon, there were 527 reported crashes on SoCal freeways. Last week at the same time when the weather was ridiculously hot and sunny, there were only 267 crashes.
There are two schools of thought when it comes to the increased number of L.A. car crashes in the rain. One is that people just don't know how to drive in L.A. when it rains, and that our wimpy driving contributes to the crashes and snail's pace traffic. And then the other is that we're not really all that bad at driving, and that those roads are extra slippery with oil. Whatever the reason, we have to admit that when it rains in L.A., we all contemplate about not even getting in our cars and going to work:
me this a.m.: couldn't find rain jacket/umbrella, no clue what shoes to wear, briefly contemplated working from home #LAproblems #LATweather
— Annie Z. Yu (@anniezyu) September 15, 2015
One year ago, Congress voted to defund public media, eliminating a critical $1.7 million from our budget every year going forward. But they couldn’t silence us, and we’re not going anywhere. LAist is now 100% community funded and that means we’re taking our future into our own hands and turning to you to keep local reporting strong.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
Senior Vice President News, Editor in Chief
