The I-35W Fort Worth pileup investigation is focusing on deicing. What about speed?
Deicing and speed were the focus of elected leaders and safety experts a day after a 133-car pileup killed six people on I-35W in Fort Worth.
State Sen. Kelly Hancock, R-North Richland HIlls, whose district is adjacent to the crash site, called on the private company that operates the TEXPress toll lanes where the crash occurred — North Tarrant Express Mobility Partners — to explain what steps it took before dawn Thursday to prevent ice from forming on the road.
“This horrific tragedy warrants full investigation at the local, state and federal levels, and I have personally directed the NTE to produce documentation on weather treatments, which I have yet to see,” Hancock said in an email. “Texans deserve all the facts and they must be brought to light swiftly.”
Robert Hinkle, spokesman for NTE Mobility Partners, has said the company had been “spot treating” the entire I-35W corridor with anti-icing materials since Tuesday, although he didn’t provide details about how much deicing material was placed on the road in the hours just before the early Thursday crash.
Video shot by passers-by who witnessed the chain-reaction crash appeared to show that the roadway was covered in a sheet of ice. Around that time before dawn Thursday morning, weather radar showed a small shower of freezing rain in the vicinity of I-35W near Northside Drive.
The safety benefits of deicing roads — or preventing ice from forming on the surface in the first place — has been known for decades. A 1992 study by Marquette University in Wisconsin found that treating roads for ice can reduce accidents by 88%.
But many current and former highway officials have said that knowing when to apply anti-icing material — and which type of material to use — is an inexact science. A liquid brine is often used to treat roads and bridges before an ice event occurs. Solid deicing materials such as magnesium chloride pellets are often used to thaw ice after it has formed on roadways.
What about speed?
Beyond the discussion about ice, the leader of a national highway safety group said he also hopes the tragedy serves as a reminder of the dangers of driving fast in icy conditions.
The posted speed limit is 75 mph in the TEXPress toll lanes where the chain-reaction crash began. Video shot by passers-by and posted on social media showed that many of the cars involved in the crash appeared to be traveling at or near the 75 mph limit when they came upon the iced-over portion of the road and lost control.
“Why are people going the maximum speed if the weather is bad?” asked Jonathan Adkins, executive director of the Governors Highway Safety Association, a group that closely follows road fatality trends. “This is really a wake-up call to address speeding. We’ve got to have a national priority on speeding, just as we did with drunk driving years ago.”
Speeding is a factor in 25% of all road fatalities in the United States, according to the association.
Also, traffic accidents have spiked nationwide during the COVID-19 pandemic, Adkins said. Because the pandemic shutdown has forced many commuters to stay in their homes, the nation’s freeway systems have more space between cars — which, Adkins said, makes it easier for motorists to drive faster than the posted speed limit in areas where traffic congestion would normally slow them down.
Staff writer Eleanor Dearman contributed to this report.
