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Ice and sleet are a nightmare for Texas motorists. As soon as temperatures dip with enough moisture in the air, Dallas becomes tangled with traffic, turning normal commutes into deadly hazards.
On Thursday, one of the worst winter-related traffic accidents in recent memory occurred, when a 133-car pileup killed six people and injured dozens more. Many of them were health care workers on their morning commute.
This weather-related chaos is not an unfamiliar sight, and over 135 years of coverage The Dallas Morning News has recorded these incidents.
1940s
As car ownership became ubiquitous in everyday life, dangers rose beside it. Arctic temperatures crept into Dallas over 70 years ago, leaving what The News declared on Feb. 13, 1948, a “city nearly immobile.”
Temperatures dropped as low as 18 degrees, wreaking havoc on city public transportation. “From 80 to 100 buses skidded off the streets and had to be towed back on,” said a traffic official. It created a “1,000-car traffic jam on Harry Hines Boulevard and Oak Lawn.”
Sand was spread on inclines and busy intersections. There were no major accidents despite the conditions.
1950s
A 2-inch layer of wet and heavy snow turned Dallas “into a white fairyland that proved to be a motoring nightmare,” The News reported on Dec. 31, 1958.
What would normally be a 15-minute drive across downtown turned into 1.5 hours as a result of bumper-to-bumper traffic.
Buses were delayed, and one woman went to the hospital to be treated for exposure to the 20-degree weather while waiting for her ride. Things were so bad that one officer proclaimed, “If half the people in Dallas were home in bed right now we’d still have a traffic jam.
An incident earlier that decade also left drivers in harm’s way when “at least three cities emergency measures were taken to care for hundreds of motorists stranded when snow drifts blocked their highway routes,” The News reported on Dec. 29, 1954.
Dallas itself was spared the worst of that winter deep freeze, but others were not so lucky when the state Highway Patrol evacuated an estimated 250 cars that were trapped on the highway between the towns of Electra and Vernon.
1960s
On Jan. 26, 1961, North Texas experienced another storm that brought more life-risking driving conditions. Ice covered Dallas streets for two days, with more than 100 traffic accidents counted on a single day alone. Most incidents were fender-benders, but there were at least two fatalities.
On Jan. 29, 1966, residents discovered “temperatures plunging rapidly and [streets coated] with a treacherous glaze that brought havoc to motorists.”
The News reported that “temperatures dropped so suddenly in Dallas that hundreds of motorists found themselves virtually trapped on ice-coated streets.” Dallas police reported 250 accidents in an 8-hour period, including wrecks with multiple cars. Dozens of people were hospitalized.
1970s
A hard freeze swept North Texas according on Jan. 5, 1972. Temperatures reached the teens, shutting down the city and contributing to 369 traffic accidents.
Almost exactly a year later, on Jan. 7, 1973, a smaller cold front hit with freezing drizzle and caused a 25-car pileup on the Trinity River bridge on State Highway 183. Another 11-car pileup occurred that same evening.
Later that decade, the “worst ice storm in 30 years” hit Dallas, leading to city-wide blackouts and impassable highways. The most severe accident of that week “was a 100-car tie-up in the northbound lanes of North Central Expressway near Royal Lane,” The News details on Jan. 7, 1979.
Like today, residents were urged to stay home for safety.
1980s
“Winter’s icy punch” made an early appearance, according to The News, on Jan. 29, 1980. Two people died on the slick roadways and almost 200 accidents were throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
Frigid arctic-like weather crept into the city two years later, when an officer warned on Dec. 22, 1983, that it was so bad, “driving [was] down to 15 or 20 mph, and that’s if you have chains on.”
The timing could not have been worse that year as icy roads appeared right before Christmas, putting a “crimp” in holiday travel.
North Texas motorists have experienced winter road hazards over the decades, and those storms are a reminder that as soon as the water freezes drivers should be vigilant and cautious.
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