DFW had some very isolated icing on the roads early Thursday morning. The Express lanes of 35W had one bad patch in a downhill area that was otherwise clear.
A total of 133 vehicles were involved in a pile up that had the road still shut down Friday morning.
There were 6 fatalities and 36 people injured at the scene. Other drivers sought medical treatment later bringing the total to more than 70 injured.

Whomever got hit by the FedEx truck just hit the lottery.

Knowing the road conditions and driving at a safe speed...what's so hard about doing that? If you are not sure about your driving skills, or your vehicle is not built/equipped for those conditions - get off the road.

Since that Fed Ex driver likely survived, if it was me, I'm not sure I would ever be able to drive a rig again being that apparently helpless ,and plowing into all those wrecked cars, at speed. I'm assuming the Fed Ex driver was no goofball , 1st day driver.

One of my wife's co-workers was driving in From Denton, she said everything was fine, no ice at all until they got to 28th street. So highway speeds all the way into ice, NOT good. She was trapped left and right, couldn't get out, finally somebody came along and got her out through the trunk.

Saw an interview with another guy, was trying to get a lady out of the car as the Fedex truck approached, didn't have enough time to get her out and she was crushed.

Rob, as a native Michigander, former Wisconsinite, Utahan and Ohioan, you don't know what you're talking about. It's different here. West Texas and the panhandle are more similar to what you're used to.

No real shock to see ..if the speed limit was 100 in Texas, they would go 110 and ride your bumper like your holding them up

That's some unsettling footage.
Those cars the FedEx truck hit were essentially a ramp; I'd be surprised if those folks survived.
Not having been there, it's hard to say what might have prevented or mitigated that, but sudden ice is obviously a nasty thing.
On non-winter tires, sailing along, and then hitting the brakes...trajectory & time are pretty much running things.
My brother said my niece would have been there except she had the day off.

The situation, at least as my wife's coworker described it, drove in from Denton, about 30 miles at normal highway speeds, no precipitation at all, it's dark and they're in the express lanes, I think the speed limit there is 75 MPH, all of a sudden you crest a bridge and you're on ice between barriers. Not a damned thing you can do. She said she aimed for the softest thing she could pick out amongst the horrible choices she had.

I have relatives in San Antonio and Houston. Folks down there can't drive in the rain. The TV and Radio news outlets were warning folks about the threat of ice for hours leading up to this crash. Poor choices. I feel bad for those who died. It could have been avoided.

let off the brakes so you can steer a little and try to ease into the guardrail is about all you can hope to do.

I saw a story earlier I can't find now, about a guy who was in the crash and then was helping people get free from their wrecked cars. There was a woman screaming in a wreck, and he was trying to help her but saw the Fed Ex semi coming towards them out of control and lept under a wrecked semi trailer and was OK but saw the woman crushed to death right in front of his eyes by the Fed Ex truck crashing into her wrecked car.
Having lived in this area my whole life I hate salt for all the damage its done to my cars, but realize it is necessary.
They do a damn good job here with pre treating, plowing and salting but every now and then there will be an icy spot and it catches you by surprise. A few years ago it was super cold but hadn't snowed in days so the streets were clear and dry. I was in a left turn lane going maybe 30 to try to make the arrow, tapped the brakes, and completely lost control in the blink of an eye, car went into the intersection spinning around and I was bracing waiting to wreck into someone or something, but the car came to a halt after a couple turns without hitting anyone thankfully. It was a busy intersection with cars stopped at all corners, I looked around sheepishly thinking of Peewee Herman in one of his movies "I meant to do that! he he" and then turned the wheel and headed on my way. I still cringe thinking of how quick I lost control, and I'm a person who has suffered through decades of driving in snowstorms and other treacherous winter conditions.

DRIVE FASTER DUMMIES!!!!



UN-faqqing believable why people have to drive so fast. I can be anywhere I need to be, and on time at sixty mile an hour, why can't anyone else?

That, and with almost every vehicle on the road having an outside temperature gauge right between your eyes it is absolutely inexcusable for something like this to happen.

Those truck drivers should have known better. Unfortunately two years ago most of them were only driving goats and camels.

Not down here...two years ago those guys were probably getting their sisters pregnant.

Now that's a voice of experience.


That Fedex truck is well wired. I'm sure they already know how fast he was going, when the brakes were applied, and how far he went after hitting the brakes.

I guarantee there was a line across that highway that had dry bare pavement on one side and glare ice on the other.

I have experienced that phenomenon in that particular part of Texas with a big truck and it is no joke. You're motoring along at 65 mph with no hint of a problem and your first clue is when you lift your foot and the drive tires lock up.

You pop over a rise in those conditions and you very suddenly find that you are now a passenger.

Kevin

I was iced in at the Wes-T-Go truck stop in Tye, TX back in 04 or 05, I think. In Abilene, about 10 miles east, the roads were basically dry. Pockets of precip are strange, but not unusual.

This is from a better day/

I made a 200 mile trip on I-75 yesterday with the temperature below freezing.
There was not a 5 minute segment of the trip where I did not see crazy behavior.
I agree that the judgement and rationality of big truck drivers has gone down a lot.

It doesn't surprise me with Fed-EX. I drive trucks in the northeast and the trucks I'm in are topped out at 65 mph. It's rare that I pass any Fed-Ex driver, in fact they seem to be the fastest guys out there, and some of them don't seem to care how they get by you. They give the rest of us a bad name.

That must've been terrifying..

I think the 0:46 to 0:50 second mark of the video tells the story:

..."Bridge Freezes Before Roadway" ...

There isn't much a driver can do once they enter an iced-over bridge at ANY speed, let alone 75, with concrete barriers on both sides...

Like Twostick already said, at that point the outcome is determined by the Laws of Physics, nothing you can do but hang on and hope.
- Art