At least 5 dead in Fort Worth pile-up after freezing rain causes icy roads in North Texas

[Lochloosa]

Source: Dallas News

At least five people had died as a result of the pile-up, and 36 people had been transported to local hospitals, Drivdahl said.

By about 10:30 a.m., Drivdahl said most people involved in the pile-up had been rescued or removed from their vehicles, but many vehicles would need to be removed off highway.

“We are going to have to go through and search vehicle by vehicle,” Drivdahl said.



Read more: https://www.dallasnews.com/news/weather/2021/02/11/winter-weather-causes-hazardous-conditions-on-north-texas-roads/

[catbyte]

1. Awful. Freezing rain is the worst--you have absolutely no control. 4-wheel drive means nothing.

I subscribe to a few amateur weather watching channels on YouTube and it's beginning to look like the south, central, and eastern United States may be looking at catastrophic ice storms early next week. I hope the models are wrong.

[Miguelito Loveless]

5. I always love drives of 4x4

who believe that having a 4-wqheel drive means the law of the coefficients of friction may be ignored.

[yellowdogintexas]

21. that is one of the great myths of driving!

Far too many also believe that a big pickup truck will keep them from skidding. They forget that the truck bed is very light in weight relative to the front half of the truck.

loading the truck bed with heavy stuff helps. COncrete blocks come to mind.

When I drove a VW Beetle, I kept concrete blocks in the foot well in the back seat, a large bag of cat litter behind the back seat and 2 or 3 bags in the front end. This was back when kitty litter was clay and much heavier (plus the litter was useful if I got stuck in snow)

[ironflange]

26. True that

Four wheel drive is great in the snow, but on glare ice, forget it.

[Delphinus]

11. Neat

to see your name there!

Thanks for sharing this - I've not run across this channel and I will be sure to check them out a bit more.

[catbyte]

13. Thanks! He's a really sharp guy and is correct more times than he's wrong. I appreciate that he

analyzes several models that you can't get just by reading local NWS forecast discussions.

[yellowdogintexas]

20. I just discovered one of them a couple of days ago. His detail is phenomenal

a lot of it is over my head but I get a much better idea of where the pressure systems are headed. When air pressure changes suddenly, especially if it is a drop, I will hurt from head to toe.
It is especially bad in my large muscles.
The last time it happened the aching woke me up; I could feel it growing and spreading.

I spent a great deal of time with my electric cover. Heat is about the only thing that reliably relieves it.

[milestogo]

2. Thats awful.

[BobTheSubgenius]

3. Freezing rain is a road hazard that makes driving almost impossible.

How in God's name are people going fast enough in those conditions to be killed?

[C Moon]

4. To me, vehicle deaths are so very sad. :(

If only we didn't need them to get from place to place. Silly, but hopefully one day.

[SharonClark]

6. It doesn't take much to lose control

One night, I was creeping along and my car still slid into a curb.
Another time, my car did a complete 360 on the ice but the distance between the cars ahead and behind me prevented a crash.

So glad I'm retired and the city does a better job with the streets.

[LudwigPastorius]

7. The videos on Facebook are horrific.

Semi trucks barreling full speed into a mass of cars with injured people in them.

[Stallion]

8. Prominently Displayed in Video a huge Federal Express Truck Going about 50 MPH blowing into 4-5 cars

it was much too icy for that truck to reach the speeds it did

[Paladin]

12. Looked closer to 70 mph to me---and it never slowed down.

I'm afraid there will be a lot more than 5 fatalities. I'm just hoping my friends in north Texas weren't involved.

[yellowdogintexas]

16. death toll is now 7 - at least the last time I looked

I-35 is very busy and folks were driving much too fast. That interchange has 4 ramps and an overpass with exposed undersides which means ice

It's only 29 degrees here and if we continue to get mist and light rain, it's going to freeze

I suspect the opposite side of the interstate has been closed at least 2 exits back to allow the first responders to do their work. The interchanges on the accident side would have been closed as soon as possible to get people off the highway before they plowed in to it.

If you go over to You TUbe and search "Fort Worth Texas" it will pop right up

[LeftInTX]

27. Yikes...Low 30s can cause hazards on overpasses

Don't know how much precip was involved too.

We got decent rain down here in San Antonio. It's 36 right now. Still raining.
Not in the warning area, but surrounding counties are.

What a mess. Freezing rain: Stay home!!! Freezing rain is the worst!!

Was DFW under a winter storm warning last night?
The Hill Country certainly wasn't..Now it is...
Now, I-35 is pretty much slip and slide north of Austin.

[LeftInTX]

31. Was there a winter storm warning in time for this mess?

Were schools open this morning etc?

[yellowdogintexas]

41. It may have accelerated after it skidded & the driver lost control.

Ice would have propelled it, making it move faster

[IBEWVET]

9. watching to much ice road truckers on tv n/t

[FailureToCommunicate]

10. Just praying my son out there is taking side roads today.

Terrible for those involved.

Slow the hell down in bad weather!

[riversedge]

15. hoping all is well.

[FailureToCommunicate]

23. Thanks. I told him to to stick to the service roads along side the toll highways.

[Sapient Donkey]

37. Avoiding the flyovers and bridges is a good idea

That can be hard to do, though. I think this accident happened just a few miles from me on one of those overpass bridges (or whatever they are called)

I don't remember there being any massive accidents during the 2013 ice storm in which the entire roads being sheets of ice with ice rocks sticking out. I guess that has a lot to do with it being more obvious. So, people stay home or if they have to drive, they are way more alert and careful.

[FailureToCommunicate]

40. We talked to him later. The express lane of the toll road had been salted, but not the

regular (mostly trucks) lanes. And that overpass surface iced up before the rest, like the signs always warn.

[yellowdogintexas]

42. in 2013 the whole metroplex shut down. That was the cobblestone ice

incident wasn't it. Weirdest stuff I have ever seen. We had thundersnow too

There was another one that shut everything down for several days. I was really glad I was working at home then.

[yellowdogintexas]

17. hopefully his route is in another part of town.

The accident is a I 35 and 28th street interchange.. 28th street is the most direct route to the Stockyards

[FailureToCommunicate]

22. Yes, his route from work is NE towards The Colony, but he often sticks to service roads,

which he says can be almost as good as the toll roads time wise.

[yellowdogintexas]

43. Update: accident was in Southbound Express Lanes which are toll lanes

with higher speed limit. That Express lane is between the regular interstate lanes there

I watched some overheads earlier today and it was right by that Calvary Cathedral church at Yucca (I think) exit. North of the 121 I-35 split. the NE 28th street interchange is north of the accident

My brother in law and his wife are both FWPD officers and they were there. He was one of the first to get there and she worked on closing down the highway / redirecting traffic. She said it was horrible.

Last report was 133 vehicles, 6 fatalities at least 60 taken to hospitals

[riversedge]

14. many simi trailers involved........

Peace to their families

https://dmn-dallas-news-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com/resizer/N5dAT9ZB7cZTss8fKcVHJmgK9Vw=/1660x934/filters:focal(1115x755:1125x745):no_upscale()/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/dmn/GAHAWHWMPBFX7P3PQNGMDUEPVU.jpg

[tenderfoot]

18. There's video of this and it's TERRIFYING!

[LittleGirl]

19. The videos are terrifying nt

[IronLionZion]

24. Probably not a lot of winter tires in Texas

or even all season tires, or experience driving on icy roads.

[cab67]

29. see my comment below -

The northern parts of the state typically get at least one bad ice storm each winter.

[LeftInTX]

36. Hubby has all season on his truck and we're in South Texas

Winter tires in Texas: No

[LeftInTX]

25. I woke up to thunder and rain. Temps were in the low 40s. Kind of shocker!

Now it's 36 and light rain.

It's not supposed to freeze here, but adjacent counties to the north and west are at 32 and under a winter storm warning.
I'm in San Antonio. (Although someone did post a pic of ice here in town)

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

Winter Storm Warning

URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE
National Weather Service Austin/San Antonio TX
1106 AM CST Thu Feb 11 2021

...Winter Storm Warning for portions of the the Hill Country in
south central Texas...

Llano-Burnet-Williamson-Edwards-Kerr-Gillespie-Kendall-Blanco-
Travis- Including the cities of Llano, Burnet, Georgetown, Rocksprings, Kerrville, Fredericksburg, Boerne, Blanco, and Austin

From Fort Worth. Yikes what a mess!

Link to tweet

[cab67]

28. My parents moved to the DFW area while I was in college.

When I was back for winter break, there would invariably be an ice storm. At work (grocery store and/or fast food), or with my parents' neighbors, I'd remark that the roads were so bad because sand or salt weren't being laid down to clear them. There'd be a little bit of sand at the major intersections, and that was it.

"It's because we just don't get that kind of weather" would be the usual response. To which I asked, "Did we not just have such weather? You know, the storm that just paralyzed the whole area because the roads are too slippery?"

They'd nod.

"Did we have a storm like this last year? And did it paralyze the whole area because the roads were too slippery?"

They'd nod.

"And the year before that?"

At which point I'd get back to work, hoping I'd made my point.

Ice is always treacherous on pavement. I've only totalled a car once, and it was because a deer jumped in front of me on I-80 just as I hit a patch of black ice. But although it's bad anywhere it happens, salt and sand can help, and there wasn't much interest in the part of DFW where my parents lived into doing that. In fact, there appeared to be outright hostility to the idea, largely on the theory that salt would damage their cars - as though having your car drive into a ditch wouldn't also cause damage. This was the case every winter until my parents' deaths 7 and 5 years ago, respectively. Granted, maybe I was only experiencing one part of the DFW area.

This is the sort of tragedy that can be made less likely, albeit not entirely prevented.

Has this changed? Was my experience atypical?

[LeftInTX]

30. In SA, we don't use salt, except in a few spots

We use sand. We get less freezing rain than Dallas though.
Right now it is raining and 36, so it's the most "at risk" we've had for a few years.

But it seemed like for awhile freezing rain (more like freezing fog) would happen once a year.

Basically freezing rain = stay home...

I think everyone just stays home....

I'm surprised that all these cars were out.
However, Austin did not have a winter storm warning last night and they also have freezing rain. So maybe there was not a winter storm warning in time keep traffic off the roads?

[cab67]

38. That's possible.

Though if snow or ice are suspected, they're generally pretty good about getting the word out in Austin.

I went to grad school in Austin. They actually cancelled classes and told us all to go home one day because there was the threat of snow. This would have been, like, an inch - but no snow ever fell.

[OriginalGeek]

49. I grew up there

in the 70s and early 80s and we got at least 2 or 3 days off from school every year because of icy roads. They wouldn't trust the buses out there. and it's especially bad on bridges because they can freeze well before the rest of the roads get ice.

[LeftInTX]

32. Yikes! There was a different pileup overnight

I don't know why all these vehicles were on the road. Obviously a warning sign!

[yellowdogintexas]

45. I saw on TV that there were several around the Metroplex.

I think the weather was worse to the east.

Black ice is sooo bad

[ananda]

33. It's not great here in Austin.

I just got internet back after an outage, and the lights
blinked on and off a few times too.

I can't wait till this is over!

[LeftInTX]

34. I saw the Winter Storm Warning for Travis

We don't have one for SA...

Stay home!

[ananda]

35. Will do and backatcha!

!!!

[JCMach1]

39. These were showers so some areas had almost nothing while

Some areas got a fast moving dump of instant ice as it was 23-25F this AM in DFW area.

This was despite TXDOT dumping salt and sand for the last 72 hours or so...

[yellowdogintexas]

46. now that makes sense - in warm weather that would be scattered showers

or isolateds. We did not get anything here over in SW Fort Worth. It is just damn cold and going to get colder

Glad to know TXDOT was dumping stuff.

[JCMach1]

48. It also appears private tollway did not do its job . .. this road was not

TXDOT.

[LeftInTX]

47. Wow!!!

That is incredibly cold for an ice storm!!

Usually I've never seen them below 28 degrees

They showed balloon readings of 50 degrees at 4,000 ft...
It was even warmer higher up....