Horrific DFW crash

[JOSEYWALES66 1805]

Someone I know had his car hit by the FedEx truck.  Thankfully he had gotten out of his car to inspect the damage from his collision.  He would have been f'd up had he been in his vehicle.  He didn't even get a scratch.

 

 

[Steel Shank 9431]

16 minutes ago, JOSEYWALES66 said:

Someone I know had his car hit by the FedEx truck.  Thankfully he had gotten out of his car to inspect the damage from his collision.  He would have been f'd up had he been in his vehicle.  He didn't even get a scratch.

 

 

This can't be true. Posters previously said it couldn't.

[JOSEYWALES66 1805]

2 minutes ago, Steel Shank said:

This can't be true. Posters previously said it couldn't.

No clue what you are referring to and I heard this second hand from his wife.  It could have been embellished. 

[Steel Shank 9431]

2 minutes ago, JOSEYWALES66 said:

No clue what you are referring to and I heard this second hand from his wife.  It could have been embellished. 

Some folks above disagreed about getting out of your vehicle. Glad your guy is OK. I think sometimes it can be good to get out of a vehicle.

[High Plains Drifter 11052]

On 2/11/2021 at 1:34 PM, CHIEF said:

One of my uncles is a retired Dallas Fire Department captain, he told me if you are in a massive pile up, under no circumstance should you get out, or undo your seatbelt. You have a better chance in your vehicle with defined crush zones.

CHIEF

 

just seems like common sense to me.

 

 

[Herbie Hancock 7375]

Some folks above disagreed about getting out of your vehicle. Glad your guy is OK. I think sometimes it can be good to get out of a vehicle.

And I know a guy that survived a car wreck because he wasn’t wearing his seatbelt. Does that mean nobody should ever wear a seatbelt?

[CHIEF 5095]

On 2/11/2021 at 10:20 AM, Todd Gack said:

 

Hard to watch

 

https://www.facebook.com/100000286180834/posts/4016511288368371/?d=n

 

Holy shit. The guy in that FJ not only lived, he walked away after being cut out. You can see him come in the screen about :47, he gets hit at about 1:03.

CHIEF

Edited February 13, 2021 by CHIEF

[Steel Shank 9431]

15 minutes ago, Herbie Hancock said:

And I know a guy that survived a car wreck because he wasn’t wearing his seatbelt. Does that mean nobody should ever wear a seatbelt?

Exactly. Every situation is different.

[washparkhorn 9939]

11 hours ago, RPM said:

This is going to wind up being the fault of North Tarrant Express for failing to properly treat the road surface. Spraying it with saltwater 2 days earlier wasn't enough. It needed more than that. The toll lanes were the only ones that froze.

I assume they have road temp sensors for that elevated roadways since everyone knows they freeze first. 

Spraying saltwater 2 days earlier is ridiculous. That would have worn off by the time of the freeze. Should have been treating and retreating through the overnight and morning hours. Or they should have shut of that section until they could get salt and sand there. 

In cold weather climes, cities enlist garbage trucks and Parks Department vehicles to aid in sanding/salting.  There is more than one way to approach a solvable problem. 

 

[cactusflinthead 27602]

 

[cmontexas 3280]

Never count out WBAP's ability to turn any situation into a paritsan issue

[MNLonghornFUKM 8817]

You'd think if they needed logs over here.....and they needed logs over there.....a phone call would have saved a whole lot of trouble.

Haha. State patrol inspectors aren’t gonna let that slide

[Royalfan5 2355]

1 hour ago, washparkhorn said:

I assume they have road temp sensors for that elevated roadways since everyone knows they freeze first. 

Spraying saltwater 2 days earlier is ridiculous. That would have worn off by the time of the freeze. Should have been treating and retreating through the overnight and morning hours. Or they should have shut of that section until they could get salt and sand there. 

In cold weather climes, cities enlist garbage trucks and Parks Department vehicles to aid in sanding/salting.  There is more than one way to approach a solvable problem. 

 

Fire trucks can push a plow too

[washparkhorn 9939]

1 hour ago, cmontexas said:

Never count out WBAP's ability to turn any situation into a paritsan issue

Amen. 

[washparkhorn 9939]

Whoever is managing the goofballs who let that freeze over . . . wtf.  Prevention of ice on that is not an option on that portion of elevated - ever.

It's an extremely cheap fix compared to this. 

Do the math.

fuck. 

[Sandman 3412]

13 hours ago, CHIEF said:

Holy shit. The guy in that FJ not only lived, he walked away after being cut out. You can see him come in the screen about :47, he gets hit at about 1:03.

CHIEF

I've never cared for FJs but damn, this makes me want to get one. Reading that thread was kind of emotional, glad the guy's alright.

[SimonBolivar 10959]

14 hours ago, washparkhorn said:

I assume they have road temp sensors for that elevated roadways since everyone knows they freeze first. 

Spraying saltwater 2 days earlier is ridiculous. That would have worn off by the time of the freeze. Should have been treating and retreating through the overnight and morning hours. Or they should have shut of that section until they could get salt and sand there. 

In cold weather climes, cities enlist garbage trucks and Parks Department vehicles to aid in sanding/salting.  There is more than one way to approach a solvable problem. 

 

And miss out on all of those sweet sweet tolls?

[bluto 4942]

Was driving home from farmers branch to smu area late Wed night and was shocked at how unprepared everything was for ice that was already forming. Drove past the road maintenance facility on DNT near royal naybe and they didn’t seem to be working very urgently.

[52-80 19245]

1 hour ago, Sandman said:

I've never cared for FJs but damn, this makes me want to get one. Reading that thread was kind of emotional, glad the guy's alright.

Modern vehicles are amazing.  20-30 years ago the death toll wouldve multiplied.  Holy shit.

[bmbmd 1027]

3 hours ago, Sandman said:

I've never cared for FJs but damn, this makes me want to get one. Reading that thread was kind of emotional, glad the guy's alright.

I've got one I drive in bad weather.  It would be perfect if I could see out the back.  So much for "suicide doors".

Edited February 13, 2021 by bmbmd

[Sandman 3412]

17 minutes ago, bmbmd said:

I've got one I drive inn bad weather.  It would be perfect if I could see out the back.  So much for "suicide doors".

I sat in one at Carmax once. I felt like I was in a shipping container. Couldn't see out the back and there was an echo anytime we spoke. I was turned off after that. But now? I'm rethinking my position.

[TwiceHorn 31535]

1 hour ago, bluto said:

Was driving home from farmers branch to smu area late Wed night and was shocked at how unprepared everything was for ice that was already forming. Drove past the road maintenance facility on DNT near royal naybe and they didn’t seem to be working very urgently.

There was ice up there?  We got the tiniest bit of sleet/frozen rain Thursday morning, enough to be dangerous but also to disappear by noon, and nothing since.  Knock on wood. 225.

Never mind, you said Wednesday.

Edited February 13, 2021 by TwiceHorn

[clapclapclap 9000]

Looks like Texpress is shutting down nearly all their lanes:

They couldn't shut down their depressed sections because of the ADA?

[ABSR 5323]

16 hours ago, clapclapclap said:

Looks like Texpress is shutting down nearly all their lanes:

They couldn't shut down their depressed sections because of the ADA?

They are worried about causing suicides.

[BradInATX 9208]

Just drove home from San Antonio. Horrific three hour drive. 281 was a shit show. No salt or sand. There was one hill near Bulverde that a bunch of people got stuck on. You can see the vehicles that tried and failed. Sheriff said he was basically stuck there with no timeline on help, sand, etc. Nothing anywhere nearby. No way to turn around.

Only 4WD trucks and one random lady in a Volkswagen got through it. You had to go up the median to the top. I really hope some help showed up. It was dangerous and cold out there and it's only going to get worse for them if people start running out of gas.

I hugged my truck when I got home. Not literally, but it saved my ass from my own terrible decision making today. Good truck.



It was getting worse with more and more cars by the time I got over the hill. Every car in this pic was stopped. This was before the trucks decided to try using the median to get up the hill and some of us managed to clear out.

[RPM 26353]

Does anyone remember when they used to show fleets of sanding trucks working 24/7 to keep traffic moving? WTF happened to that? 

[BradInATX 9208]

Does anyone remember when they used to show fleets of sanding trucks working 24/7 to keep traffic moving? WTF happened to that? 

Saw a couple on 46. Everything after that mess was well sanded and decent (but slow) driving. I'm not sure a sand truck would clear that hill. Which is the scary part in terms of people ending up stuck out there with nothing in sight and no solution. The sheriff was pretty shaken up. He was in the same boat as everyone else. Really nice guy.

The best bad plan to be had if you ended up stuck there was a 3.2 mile walk to the Hampton Inn in Bulverde.

[RPM 26353]

4 minutes ago, BradInATX said:

I'm not sure a sand truck would clear that hill.

You drive it in reverse and sand ahead of you.

[BradInATX 9208]

You drive it in reverse and sand ahead of you.

That makes more sense. Thanks. The sheriff did say that sand trucks were "supposed to be coming" but that he was on hour 3 of being told that with no sand truck.

[RPM 26353]

Just now, BradInATX said:

2 minutes ago, RPM said:

You drive it in reverse and sand ahead of you.

That makes more sense. Thanks. The sheriff did say that sand trucks were "supposed to be coming" but that he was on hour 3 of being told that with no sand truck.

Which was kind of my original point. They had plenty of advance noticed this was going to be a significant weather event and have taken little preventive action beyond spraying the roads a couple of days ago...

Fuck your overtime, put the sand trucks out there. We've been declared a disaster area, the Feds are paying for this shit.

 

[Leeroy Jenkins 2414]

On 2/12/2021 at 8:41 PM, Royalfan5 said:

Fire trucks can push a plow too

What?  Yeah add yet another job to firefighters.  Those trucks are not designed for a plow and they already cost an arm an a leg.  
 

[Herbie Hancock 7375]

Fire trucks can push a plow too

Yeah you can fuck right the fuck off with that shit. Come do my job for 8 of my 24 hour shift and then tell me we should also be pushing snow plows around the city/county as well.

[Royalfan5 2355]

19 minutes ago, Leeroy Jenkins said:

What?  Yeah add yet another job to firefighters.  Those trucks are not designed for a plow and they already cost an arm an a leg.  
 

They mount them here for record snows here. Not every time, but when you’ve got a situation they can do in a pinch.

[Pam Cummings 9658]

2 hours ago, BradInATX said:

Just drove home from San Antonio. Horrific three hour drive. 281 was a shit show. No salt or sand. There was one hill near Bulverde that a bunch of people got stuck on. You can see the vehicles that tried and failed. Sheriff said he was basically stuck there with no timeline on help, sand, etc. Nothing anywhere nearby. No way to turn around.

Only 4WD trucks and one random lady in a Volkswagen got through it. You had to go up the median to the top. I really hope some help showed up. It was dangerous and cold out there and it's only going to get worse for them if people start running out of gas.

I hugged my truck when I got home. Not literally, but it saved my ass from my own terrible decision making today. Good truck.



It was getting worse with more and more cars by the time I got over the hill. Every car in this pic was stopped. This was before the trucks decided to try using the median to get up the hill and some of us managed to clear out.
 

avatar checks out.

[Murfdogg21 4423]

Attempted to get back to Austin from north Houston this morning at 9am, but we only made it as far as Highway 6/Hempstead on 290 before they had 290 barricaded, but they also closed eastbound right behind us, so we were forced to take 1488 back through Magnolia and will try again on Tuesday. 

[NorthLoop 14243]

16 minutes ago, Murfdogg21 said:

Attempted to get back to Austin from north Houston this morning at 9am, but we only made it as far as Highway 6/Hempstead on 290 before they had 290 barricaded, but they also closed eastbound right behind us, so we were forced to take 1488 back through Magnolia and will try again on Tuesday. 

1488 is not a road I'd wanna drive on in these conditions. All those curves and no median. 

[Bevo 13600]

6 hours ago, Herbie Hancock said:

Yeah you can fuck right the fuck off with that shit. Come do my job for 8 of my 24 hour shift and then tell me we should also be pushing snow plows around the city/county as well.

Quit your whining: You guys already get all the pussy in town and get paid to have your pics in calendars.

[mulletpelini 5216]

You guys live in what the 5th most productive country in the world?  Maybe it's time to budget in some ice/snow removal.  

[Saint Tacky 1621]

On 2/11/2021 at 11:26 AM, Vic Mackey said:

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. 

I drive eastbound on 635 every morning between Preston and Ferguson, and it's a complete shit show - every - single - fucking - morning. During ongoing construction they are restriping the lanes every time the center barrier moves and the crews do a terrible job of it so that drivers are left to guess where your lane is heading today. Worse is when you're doing this into the sunrise. Come around the bend at TI and the sunlight just hides the lines altogether. Throw in a couple of unmarked twists around Royal/Miller and it's a real adventure if you're next to someone that isn't expecting it or not paying attention.  West bound always has a wreck coming back. Last school year we counted a streak of something similar to 17 out of 20 days straight with a ladder truck diverting several lanes of west bound traffic around a collision. Waze probably sends me back 635 West approximately once a week because of a wreck we passed on the way. 

[Biff Tannen 45733]

54 minutes ago, Saint Tacky said:

I drive eastbound on 635 every morning between Preston and Ferguson, and it's a complete shit show - every - single - fucking - morning. During ongoing construction they are restriping the lanes every time the center barrier moves and the crews do a terrible job of it so that drivers are left to guess where your lane is heading today. Worse is when you're doing this into the sunrise. Come around the bend at TI and the sunlight just hides the lines altogether. Throw in a couple of unmarked twists around Royal/Miller and it's a real adventure if you're next to someone that isn't expecting it or not paying attention.  West bound always has a wreck coming back. Last school year we counted a streak of something similar to 17 out of 20 days straight with a ladder truck diverting several lanes of west bound traffic around a collision. Waze probably sends me back 635 West approximately once a week because of a wreck we passed on the way. 

Man I don’t miss that shit at all. I was doing that drive between 35E and 75 a few years back when they were adding the toll lanes. No thank you. 

[GringoSalado 1652]

^ Long story but I went north through Dallas around then hauling livestock (freightliner + 45 footer) and my orig. itinerary had me going through around 2-3 AM. Shit went wrong and I was going to go through around 5-6AM and didn't want to go all the way around with my sched and I thought, "well fuck it how bad could it be."

 

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

 

Never made the 35 to 75 change and had to negotiate surface streets to get to 75. Fuck all of you that were there that morning.

 

 

Edited February 16, 2021 by GringoSalado

[956 Worldwide 34769]

On 2/11/2021 at 11:22 PM, Vic Mackey said:

Yep. In ice, you need to be going at a crawl. This is not even close to driving in the rain. From our lack of experience, to our tires not being well for ice and then the speed. It's all a recipe for disaster. Not to mention DOT does a very poor job of getting these roads sanded. Why were these cars on the videos going so fast? Don't tell me they were coming over a hill and they couldn't slow down on the ice. That is the result of their speed. But if you tell people this was avoidable, they roll their nose and say "hurrr durrrrr Texas roads aren't used to this". Bullshit. It's the speed. People in DFW treat the roads like their personal Nascar track no matter the weather. I have seen countless accidents today on Facebook and seemingly all of them involve an 18 wheeler. It's a common thread. They are carrying tens of thousands of pounds and think it's ok to drive fast, especially in this weather. Fuck anyone who thinks this is ok and then expects me to shed tears when you cause accidents. Learn to drive or gtfo the road. Have to go to work? Leave an hour earlier to get there on time. But nah, that's too safe for DFW. They leave at the same time and drive the same speeds they usually do.

One thing that has struck me since moving to a more German-influenced part of Europe is just how exactly lax we are about letting people onto the roads.  Not just the crazy easiness of licensing for regular and CDL, but the number of hoopties that are out there, the ridiculously low standards we have to pass a safety inspection, etc.  Here, the penalties are unforgiving for traveling without safety equipment in your car, the wrong tires for the season, a poorly maintained vehicle, etc.  If you get in a wreck in certain months and the tread isn't deep enough on your tires or no snowflake symbol? Bend over and prepare for both Johnny Law and your insurance company to take turns.  Intelligent, functioning people actually fail their written and practical driving exam and have to try again-- as it should be.

You'll catch hell from both the right and left trying to implement these standards in the U.S., "respect my rights" and "this law targets people who can't afford to maintain cars."  And it is harder to do in a place where you really do need a car to participate in the economy meaningfully.