Great story. I'll leave this somewhat traffic-related item to your wittier commenters:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/10/AR2010071002883.html

I'm sure there's some kind of connection.

This is how the zombie apocalypse always starts.

I've seen the movies.

"Zombie costumes on the way to a party".

Sure. That's exactly what they would say.

Sounds like the beginnings of a outbreak; I'd rate this as a Class 1 outbreak as of now. I've already notified my survival group and the scouts are securing our safe zone and exit routes.

Thank goodness I've taken "The Zombie Survival Guide" by Max Brooks seriously. Several of the zombies fled the scene of the crash meaning the outbreak has not been contained.

I have no knowledge of zombie survival tactics. I don't own a chain saw or a shotgun. Will a 9mm provide sufficient punch or do I need to drag out the .44 Magnum?

ZOMBIE-FREE ZONE - CollapseNet.com

Zombie -- (Zom-bee): A moving but brain-dead and soul-dead creature in a human body who functions on the biological, moral, spiritual and intellectual precept that everything in existence is there for its consumption and destruction; without awareness or consciousness of the ramifications on any other life forms -- including other zombies.

Zombies are living dead. The only proven recourse for living humans is to avoid contact with zombies as much as possible. Zombies automatically and unquestionably believe in the principle of infinite growth [within a finite container: Earth] and are incapable of conceptualizing other life paradigms. Zombies believe that everything in the universe must be classified and treated as either Left or Right... without actually defining the terms or using conveniently changing definitions of them. When faced with shortages of anything, zombies frequently revert to cannibalism ....

Zombies cannot hear and do not listen to simple scientific laws or do simple arithmetic. Zombies are known for their ability to ask extremely stupid questions and to try and engage in futile arguments with the living, thus paralyzing or retarding useful debate and discussion.

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Definition of 'facts': True reality.

(Such as: I-84 is busily filled with thousands of other cars in which drivers are NOT going to a party.)
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How facts backfire - Researchers discover a surprising threat to democracy: our brains, By Joe Keohane, Boston Globe, July 11, 2010

It’s one of the great assumptions underlying modern democracy that an informed citizenry is preferable to an uninformed one. ... If people are furnished with the facts, they will be clearer thinkers and better citizens. If they are ignorant, facts will enlighten them. If they are mistaken, facts will set them straight.

In the end, truth will out. Won’t it?

Maybe not. Recently, a few political scientists have begun to discover a human tendency deeply discouraging to anyone with faith in the power of information. It’s this: Facts don’t necessarily have the power to change our minds. In fact, quite the opposite. In a series of studies in 2005 and 2006, researchers at the University of Michigan found that when misinformed people, particularly political partisans, were exposed to corrected facts in news stories, they rarely changed their minds. In fact, they often became even more strongly set in their beliefs. Facts, they found, were not curing misinformation. Like an underpowered antibiotic, facts could actually make misinformation even STRONGER.

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"Area Man Passionate Defender Of What He Imagines Constitution To Be,” read a recent Onion headline.

...

It would be reassuring to think that political scientists and psychologists have come up with a way to counter this problem, but ... one study in which he [political scientist Brendan Nyhan] showed that people who were given a self-affirmation exercise were more likely to consider new information than people who had not. In other words, if you feel good about yourself, you’ll listen — and if you feel insecure or threatened, you won’t. This would also explain why demagogues benefit from keeping people agitated. The more threatened people feel, the less likely they are to listen to dissenting opinions, and the more easily controlled they are.

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Zombies there are, yes, yes, in costume and out. OMZ !