'Mass casualty incident' in Texas

[+and-then]

On 2/12/2021 at 10:52 AM, aztek said:

here in nyc the salt roads long before the storm hits, or a rain,  in the winter time,  air temp is not always the same as pavement temp, black ice can form even when air is above freezing point

Yes, indeed, and the FIRST indication of a problem can be total loss of control.  I was riding with a friend on an install up in Kewanee, IL. in winter and suddenly we were looking at the car behind us.  The car had done a 180 so fast it felt surreal.

[Mantis914]

On 2/12/2021 at 9:26 AM, Desertrat56 said:

I believe I-35 in that area is a priority on the salt list.  The storm hit the night before, I think.   One of the things about central Texas is that everyone drives too fast because the roads are kept in very good condition.   2/3 of the people that live in that area are not from that area (mostly midwesterners used to severe winter storms from Sept to April) and get lulled into a false sense of security because winter is usually not bad, but when a storm does hit it can be very bad.   The temperatures usually start warming up by now so the ice was a surprise for anyone who wasn't paying attention.

I tried to get out and see if anything was even open (2/17/2021) and there really wasn't anything open except for gas stations.  I'm hearing on the news that fuel is getting to be a rarity along with water so this is really turning out to be a real headache.  Along the way, I had suvs and 4 wheel drive vehicles pass me like it was a normal day so I tend to agree that there are some that just do not respect the weather and usually are the ones to end up in the ditch or on their side flipped over.  

As far as I-35W, I'm not entirely sure if TXDOT got around to spraying it as I don't travel that way but I can say that the roads were prepped all the way into Dallas along the freeways as I could see the lines of brine that they had sprayed.  However, before all this started we had a good amount of rainfall/wintery mix which may have helped wash away a lot of the prep work and make way for ice to take hold.