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Horrific DFW crash

Todd Gack

By Todd Gack
in Daily Texan

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MaybeACoordinator

MaybeACoordinator 8350

Posted
Posted
4 minutes ago, PantsTent said:

Are those trucks skidding the whole way?  Massive line of brake lights should be easy to spot in the dark.

Ice...Doesn't matter. I rear-ended a lady in Nashville coming down a low hill on ice. I had enough time to think "Well, I could honk to warn her, but my horn doesn't work, so I guess this will have to be a surprise..." It's a shitty feeling. Luckily it was on a back street and I'd been driving slow.  Not even our bumpers were damaged, but ice is a motherfucker. 

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cmontexas

cmontexas 3377

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I drive this way every morning. The snooze button may have saved my life today. Pisses me off every morning how aggressively people drive in heavy traffic.

The roads weren't even really that bad, but combination of people driving way too slow and people driving way too fast and aggressively because "its not even that bad and all these slow drivers are just stupid "

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Doc Reeves

Doc Reeves 6434

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29 minutes ago, Newdoc said:

Why are so many people out on the roads???? This is awful!


people around here just don’t know. 

ive actually seen one of these happen on I5 around SeaTac, WA. Even if you’re going 45-50 and keeping an eye on things shit just stops and you could very well be fucked. 

prayers sent
 

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mdmost

mdmost 44100

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Posted (edited)

People in the Metroplex in general drive way too fast. Doesn't matter what location. Through neighborhoods, on side streets, highways, traffic hours. Does not matter. I'm thankful DISD went ahead and made the call to keep everyone home. I'd hate to see buses out in this weather having to deal with morons who think it's fine to drive 50+ in icy conditions. Every day I when I take my kids to school, people fly past me on Garland Road going 60+, barely dodging cars to get around them, riding the ass of the car in front of them, cutting through parking lots. 

If that happened in an area with HOV Express toll lanes, that makes sense. People think of those lanes as their own private Autobahn as they can go upwards of 80 with lower traffic capacity. Those lanes being open this morning needs to cost someone their job. They are great for alleviating traffic and awful when an accident occurs as you have nowhere to go. 

Edited by mdmost
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ztejas

ztejas 44266

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11 minutes ago, Vic Mackey said:

What in the fuck were those truckers doing? Holy shit.

 

6 minutes ago, Pam Cummings said:

Wow how can you be going that fast with all those cars piled up if you're those truckers. How do you not see a horrendous pileup like that in time to at least somewhat slow down? Was this coming over a hill?

It takes awhile to stop a truck going 65. 

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closetohumping

closetohumping 17825

Posted
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8 minutes ago, cmontexas said:

I drive this way every morning. The snooze button may have saved my life today. Pisses me off every morning how aggressively people drive in heavy traffic.

The roads weren't even really that bad, but combination of people driving way too slow and people driving way too fast and aggressively because "its not even that bad and all these slow drivers are just stupid "

I generally hate slow drivers but I kind of think it's ok for these conditions.

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closetohumping

closetohumping 17825

Posted
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7 minutes ago, mdmost said:

People in the Metroplex in general drive way too fast. Doesn't matter what location. Through neighborhoods, on side streets, highways, traffic hours. Does not matter. I'm thankful DISD went ahead and made the call to keep everyone home. I'd hate to see buses out in this weather having to deal with morons who think it's fine to drive 50+ in icy conditions. Every day I when I take my kids to school, people fly past me on Garland Road going 60+, barely dodging cars to get around them, riding the ass of the car in front of them, cutting through parking lots. 

If that happened in an area with HOV Express toll lanes, that makes sense. People think of those lanes as their own private Autobahn as they can go upwards of 80 with lower traffic capacity. Those lanes being open this morning needs to cost someone their job. They are great for alleviating traffic and awful when an accident occurs as you have nowhere to go. 

Traffic is pretty dense here in OC, not Austin or Dallas bad imo, but people are always going 100+.  

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phdhorn

phdhorn 6225

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The simple answer is that they had no brakes or steering.  If you're in a loaded truck, even if you see the brake lights 500-700 ft. ahead (about the avg. farthest distance drivers see on the road), and you begin to brake, your momentum will carry you over ice with no loss of speed.  Even if you do the recommended - lay off all pedals, or gently tap the brakes off/on, it makes no difference.  This was just a no-escape situation, period.

That's not to say if a trucker was speeding, well that takes it to another level.  And yes, Thomas J. Henry will clean up, because there are some fairly decent forensics that people can estimate speed by wreckage (in this kind of pileup however, not sure).

I don't want to hear some schlep from "snow country" say "oh, I know how to drive on that stuff."  I grew up an experienced winter precip driver, and on sheer ice, there's nothing you can do in some situations. This is probably one.

csb:  Skipping all of the intesting details, I got caught in one of those lake effect blizzards just 30 m. east of Buffalo about 1981.  Going west on NY Thruway, clear weather, even outside of Batavia.  Then I saw this big black band of clouds on the horizon.  Tuning into Buffalo radio, "snow flurries today."  Oh, ok.

As it turned out, within 10 mins. it broke into an outright blizzard.  Ended up snowing 3 feet.  Wasn't classified as a "storm" because all of it was only about 30-40 miles in dimension.  That's it.

Really long story short:  I was #3 in what turned out to be a several hundred car, 5 mile pileup.  I had a bright orange ski jacket, so I went out to try and divert cars away from the building pileup.   2-3 times semis were barreling down the highway, saw me frantically waving, and steered... fortunately there was just enough snow on the highway that they could get some grip.  Several of them steered into ditches, narrowly missing 10-15 vehicles, at at least 60 mph.  Would have been a bloodbath.  Unfortunately, people down the highway didn't get spared, and several deaths were due to barreling vehicles.  It was a terrible thing.

Much more to this story, but after 4 hours they got to my car and I spent 3 of the longest days of my life holed up in a Batavia hotel.  My car "only" sustained front and rear end damage, but was driveable.  I was lucky.

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Nicole44

Nicole44 22326

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Mike Drivdahl with the Fort Worth Fire Department said firefighters were going car-to-car, looking for people in need of medical care at the scene near 28th Street.

At least five people have died in the pileup and 36 hospitalized as of 10:25 a.m., MedStar Mobile Healthcare spokesman Matt Zavadski confirmed in a phone interview on NBC 5 and later confirmed by Fort Worth police and fire officials.

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Vic Mackey

Vic Mackey 47988

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16 minutes ago, mdmost said:

People in the Metroplex in general drive way too fast. Doesn't matter what location. Through neighborhoods, on side streets, highways, traffic hours. Does not matter. I'm thankful DISD went ahead and made the call to keep everyone home. I'd hate to see buses out in this weather having to deal with morons who think it's fine to drive 50+ in icy conditions. Every day I when I take my kids to school, people fly past me on Garland Road going 60+, barely dodging cars to get around them, riding the ass of the car in front of them, cutting through parking lots. 

If that happened in an area with HOV Express toll lanes, that makes sense. People think of those lanes as their own private Autobahn as they can go upwards of 80 with lower traffic capacity. Those lanes being open this morning needs to cost someone their job. They are great for alleviating traffic and awful when an accident occurs as you have nowhere to go. 


Absolutely. DFW is terrible with how people drive. 635 being the worst for me personally. I despise that highway, especially between 30 and 75. It curves a lot and people drive way too fast. Hence why there are accidents there seemingly every day. People drive way too reckless and fast. Half the time not even paying attention to the road. It was so peaceful when me and my gf did a little getaway to small town East Texas last summer. Driving out there was so peaceful and laid back. A complete 180 from here.

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Vic Mackey

Vic Mackey 47988

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3 minutes ago, Ellellelle said:

How many of those people should have been working from home today? This is unbelievably sad.

Too many companies don't give a shit about their employees. They see them as disposable. Holding termination or reprimands over their heads if they don't come into work on these days. Fucking stupid.

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Trey3216

Trey3216 15452

Posted
Posted
30 minutes ago, Pam Cummings said:

Wow how can you be going that fast with all those cars piled up if you're those truckers. How do you not see a horrendous pileup like that in time to at least somewhat slow down? Was this coming over a hill?

THis is not an excuse, because there are none for this circumstance, but this picture appears to be right near the 28th St exit on the North Side of Downtown. When going Southbound, you're coming around a curve and over a rise right where that pileup sits.  

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jimmyjazz

jimmyjazz 47265

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Reminds me of a big pileup in Austin some 30+ years ago.  I was on 6th Street with a friend, and it started snowing/icing so we decided to bail early.  Got to the northbound split on I-35, and DPS had already closed the upper deck both ways.  But, there were still cars on the southbound upper deck, and one wiped out at the bottom.  One by one, cars and trucks would start heading down the incline, blind to what was waiting for them at the bottom, and they'd just slowly slide with no traction whatsoever.  Over and over, they just kept piling into each other.  Nobody seemed to be going very fast, though.

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