Did it start right at the express exit to the plebs 35w right before downtown? If so I agree 100%. Used to drive that route to work every morning.

where 121 and a spur from downtown comes in heading south. so yes, before town. I'm guessing in front of Mercardo juarez.

I was a manager for a fedex ground contractor for a year and I have a good friend that owns another larger contractor.

All fedex ground trucks are owned and operated by contractors, every one of them. Fedex Ground owns trailers, not trucks.

I can assure you that Fedex has a stringent safety requirement, they also required all trucks to have cameras in them. Any trucks added to fedex now have to have all of the safety tech added to them. Collision Mitigation, lane departure warning, cameras, but none of that would have helped in this situation.

As far as hiring drivers, they do not require drivers to speak english as far as I know but it is required by FMCSA, however there are a ton of drivers that do not understand english. I am currently a freight broker and speak to a ton of drivers every day. This accident is going to be a legal mess for everyone involved. Every one of these driver was responsible for being in the accident. These drivers were all driving to fast for conditions. I am sure the majority got on the toll lanes so that they could driver faster.

I feel for all of their families, this is absolutely horrible. I am glad all of my DFW friends and family avoided this.

Stay safe out there and if you are not confident you can drive, stay out of this mess coming next week.

Would this crash have been avoided if they spoke English, assuming of course they didn’t?

I have worked in logistics for the last 10 years. This doesnt even compute. They are used for different things. Box trucks tend to do local deliveries, semis tend to deliver regionally or cross country. It would make sense that there are more semi trucks on the main North-South interstate for the middle of the country that spans from Mexico to almost Canada. You have pie in the sky ideas about how this works.

If your magic idea happened, your price of ALL goods would be significantly higher and significantly more delayed.

I'm not familiar with the area, but from what I hear it is downhill for a long way. Because of the big trucks height we are able to see for a longer distance then four wheelers. So as soon as the trucks would of been at their highest point they would of seen the brake lights. They would of know what was coming a long way out, but where unable to do anything about it. Once a road gets glazed the only thing to do is to shut it down. A sign would of done nothing if they were already on the ice. The only thing that could of stopped this is to close the highway sooner...... but I dont know if it was possible.

That isnt true in the eyes of the law. Every one of the vehicles that rear ended someone else was driving too fast for conditions.

This is also not true.

if you have the time and are able, in this specific instance, you get out of your car and move forward or at least to the other side of the barrier. The force of a laden 80,000lbs semi exerts at 50 MPH is more than a stick of TNT. It is literally the force of a bomb hitting your stopped vehicle. Which is why that FJ cruiser was compacted into the size of a smart car.

In this instance, there was no shoulder for vehicles to bail to like a lot of pileups up north. This was a funnel of death. There was no where for vehicles to go. Many truck drivers try to bail instead of hit someone.

The courts will ultimately figure that out. That said, to my way of thinking, your statement would be true only if the drivers knew of the conditions far enough ahead before they encountered the black ice. Once they hit it, going downhill? No chance at this point.

Dude, there are laws currently that describe what you are talking about. It is called driving too fast for conditions. Which is why if you rearend someone in the rain, you will likely get a ticket.

I was driving through DFW at the same time, they knew. The whole of dfw was a sheet of Ice. On top of that, there was a winter weather advisory. The drivers knew or should have known.

Thank you, i am a broker currently, have managed a 20 truck company, have my CDL and have driven. I am still going through this thread. There are terrible "professional" truck drivers out there just like there are people that are terrible in every other industry.

In Texas, you are allowed to have a translator there for the written and driving test. I know because I saw it while taking mine.

The FMCSA (Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration) requires driver to be able to read, write, and speak english. That doesn't happen though in practice.

Just me- I don't understand any judge with sense allowing
all the different lawsuits there are these days.
You are pretty much responsible for yourself, and unless
somebody else creates a condition or scenario that's contrary
to law or common sense, you're on your own in this world.
Been that way for hundreds, for thousands of years.
When you stepped out of your cabin 200 years ago,
a hostile person could have killed you on the spot, a
wild animal could have jumped on you and mauled you,
your mule might have kicked you in the head while you
were getting loaded up to go to the trading post.
If nothing else, a meteor might fall out of the sky and
crush you.

We're all headed toward death the minute we pop
out of the womb. I guess a person might lay still in
bed all day, and maybe nothing would happen.
I sure don't want to live my life thinking that way.

Life isn't accident proof, and every bad thing that
happens isn't negligence on somebody's part
that you should sue for

If what you say is true, why were the highways still open? Especially the elevated parts? And if you knew the city was a sheet of ice. Then why were you on the road?

100% but people get into their emotions real quick like.....

What changed is that 200 years ago when someone did something that caused you or your family harm, it was acceptable to go cause harm back to them and their family. These days people do that with the court system instead of a fist, knife, or a gun.

I generally agree with you. I will tell you that 0 part of me was going to take any toll lanes that morning. I drove from Hurst to Addison, nearly 30 miles and made it without incident.

Everyone stay safe out there. Dont drive outside of your capabilities and don't intentionally drive in a death trap.

The treated roads were fine. I’m tellin y’all, this section was missed.

Because i know that driving it is within my capabilities.

Go look up the weather from that day. The news was saying if you didnt need to driver, don't. As previously stated, I work in logistics and my job is significantly hampered when not being able to be with my team. I move freight all over the country, not just ft worth.

You are telling me that this is the ONLY bridge in DFW that had ice on it. You and i both know that isn't true. I drove it, and not every piece of road was ice, but there was A LOT of it on the road. Knowing that conditions exist that can cause ice, means that you need to slow down.

Not sure why you are trying to argue with me, these drivers were all driving too fast for conditions. There was freezing rain falling at the time, with previous precipitation and sustained temperatures under freezing. I have lived in Texas my whole life, through multiple snow storms in N Texas. Not one time has a whole metroplex closed every road here. It has not happened.

Stay safe out there SA Hunter, the roads are supposed to be nasty from Central Texas all through the mid South, Mid West, NE, PNW, and all of the mountain states. I hope for safety for everyone and for people to use common sense.

You could be right...... this would explain why there wasn't pileups all over the city....

The treated roads were better, they werent fine. I drove on clearly treated lanes of 635 and there were still spots with ice.

I would like to see your capabilities on a sheet of ice..... and not just spots of ice. There's a big difference.

I am not saying they could have stopped. I am saying that these vehicles were driving too fast for conditions. I will tell you right now, I will put any amount of money you want on it. There will be lawsuits filed and judgements granted against multiple parties saying citing the drivers driving too fast for conditions.

I'm sure you could of pulled off what 133 others couldn't.......sure, okay.....

I see how this is gonna go. Not saying you're a know it all but.... OK, Yeah. I am.