All southbound lanes of Interstate 35W north of downtown, including the interior toll lanes where the crashes took place, remained closed through the day and overnight as dozens of firefighters and other first responders continued to work in bitterly cold temperatures to clear the damaged vehicles from the highway.
Friday, February 12, 2021
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Some are already blaming the horrible event on poorly treated roadway instead of on people hauling ass on ice. Apparently it is always someone else’s fault?
ReplyDeleteThe road was/is fine. Just covered with black ice and idiots. Idiots who ALWAYS blame somebody else for their stupidity. Gotta be careful on surface streets though, Texas road builders still haven't learned how to properly drain a road.
Deletethank you, Bob
DeletePlus, it goes to freezing in a blink
And, thanks for the Merle, Ken
Dear Texas: Trucks full of rock salt and sand, with plows on. And stop driving at 100mph when it's below freezing.
ReplyDeleteRule Number One of Driving On Ice: Unless absolutely positively HAVE to, don't.
ReplyDeleteRule Number Two: If you absolutely positively HAVE to, then DRIVE SLOWLY YOU FUCKWIT.
Job requirements saw me move from northern New Mexico to the Dallas area awhile ago. I will attest that these local area drivers are just plain stupid when it comes to a bit of ice on the road. When the overpasses ice up here - and there are MANY overpasses - because of freezing temperatures and a bit of moisture, STAY HOME. It always takes a major crash to slow these idiots down. And they never learn. Or stick to surface streets. But even that is a risk.
ReplyDeleteI don’t think southerners who can’t drive on ice are idiots; one has to live with freezing temps for years in order to master the skill. And then a few more years to learn to stay home and not try to drive on it. Snow is one thing, black ice is something else.
ReplyDeleteI keep an eye on the weather and if it looks like snow and ice, I do all my running round and errands a day or two before. And yes, I've had plenty of experience driving in ice and snow in the Sierras - not enough to drive with complete confidence, but enough to know my limitations.
DeleteSnow isn't the problem here in Texas. It's the freeze, thaw, freeze cycle. When it snows, it melts on contact with the pavement (bridges and overpasses go through that cycle almost immediately), then refreezes at night becoming black ice. In the case of this incident, that cycle completed just before dawn. The roads look fine, but the patches of ice are there waiting. The construction barriers along the road complicated matters further. Once the first vehicle lost control, the rest had no place to go and no way to slow down in time. It's true that the southerners don't have enough experience on icy roads, but it's also true that the northerners that move down here don't understand the situation either. They're used to salted and plowed roads. We use sand on bridges and overpasses (and an intersection once in a while), and occasionally a chemical mix is used. Sand stores well for years in areas beside the road waiting to be used, salt not so much. The older natives know to stock up on a few things and wait it out, the younger crowd and the transplants soon learn.
ReplyDeleteAnd Pickups are notorious for swapping ends in ice due to shit for traction on the rear wheels, and guess where everyone drives pickups?
ReplyDeleteCC
FYI..............As a resident of Dallas County, next door to Ft. Worth, here's the rest of the strory.....The accident occurred for the following reason.........the southbound lanes just north of the wreck were free of ice as they topped a small hill in the new construction. Immediately after the crest of the highway, ice suddenly accumulated on the downward slope to to a passing sleet shower........The drivers had no warning as they topped the hill at which point, there was not enough distance3 to brake of slow down.......
ReplyDeleteI had it happen to me in the summer during highway construction such that when cresting an overpass, there was suddenly stopped traffic with no place to go....Bad planning ...caution signs were not placed far enough back to handle the backlogged traffic.......
I also live in the DFW area. Grew up in the Rockies. The drivers down here are a special kind of stupid. This is not an isolated case. With ice everywhere, they drive like it's a sunny day at Daytona. Welcome to the afterlife, Darwin Award Winners.
Deletebitterly cold temperatures ??? HAHAHAHAHAHA
ReplyDeletehttps://politicallyincorrectcanadian.blogspot.com/2021/02/hey-texans.html
ReplyDeleteIt's fun, living in Montana. Californians move here and then they drive in the left lane on the interstate in their cars, passing lines of 4-wheel drive pickups who are driving at 45 in the right lane for no reason at all...
ReplyDeleteIf they had any sense, they'd crawl when they see the locals crawling. But they know better and there's no teaching them, even after they spin out and destroy their Tesla.
I was coming down off Donner Summit on I-80 during a storm and got passed by an Audi Quattro one time. He was going at least twice as fast as I was. When I got up the road a ways here he was spun out into the snow in the center divider and he and his sweetie were standing outside looking at their predicament. They were dressed to the nines and didn't have a clue what had just happened.
DeleteThat was fun. For me, anyway.
I 35 has always been wreckers gold mine. Even on August summers wrecks happen. Now with people texting and talking plus the fact I35 is a main truckers route to cross North Texas, shit happens.
ReplyDeleteIt's an elevated highway that had just had a passing sleet shower, at just the right temperature. The road was dry shortly before this patch.
ReplyDeleteI-35W is the single worst interstate stretch I've ever experienced. They've taken an 8-lane divided interstate and chopped it up into 2-lane sections, the two inner ones are the N-and S tollroads, the outer ones are the free interstate N and S lanes. It's all separated with concrete section rails - so there is literally no where to go to avoid rear-end collisions, really. They did this so they can charge a variable toll and fleece their citizens with really high tolls during rush hour, and only high tolls at other times. It's pure greed, at the expense of a safe highway.
And after all that, with an elevated section, sleet in the forecast, a known tendency for bridges to freeze first, and a dangerous road design that was raking in the cash....did they actually plan and put down some sand and salt? Nah. Too much trouble.
Shortly after learning to drive, I joined some others that thought it was great fun to spin and slide on frozen lakes. It also teaches you how to steer out of all that. How to get out of spins and slides and head the direction you want to. I remember a time a local police cruiser tried to stop some of the boys on the Fox river. Hilarious. They were all able to leave while he was still spinning.
ReplyDelete