Driving Conditions Quite Dangerous in Texas and Louisiana

SHREVEPORT, LA - My weekend was spent in Oklahoma and I was a little worried about my drive home on Sunday. Normally, I would take a route that makes a diagonal through Paris and Atlanta. But I decided to stay on the big highways and travel I-75 to Dallas and then I-20 home.

I'm glad I made that choice. The roads got treacherous with black ice and I saw wrecks all over the place. I only took pictures of ones when I was creeping or stopped because of traffic jams.

Things got very nasty as I got to Tyler. This is the first wreck I spotted.

There was another rollover wreck just down the road from that one. The truck must have flipped several times because debris was thrown all over the side of the road.

I don't know the condition of any of these drivers, but it sure looks like these could have been serious injuries and possibly fatalities.

The biggest problem with drivers in the icy conditions is that they were going way too fast. When they would get into a skid, there was no way to control the car and it would slide off the highway.

This kept emergency crews busy all of Sunday afternoon and evening.

There were also several incidents involving 18-wheelers. These are the guys and gals that you would think know how to drive in this mess. But they were not immune to crashes.

The big problem with the travel is that freezing rain was falling. It was light, but it was making the roads very slippery. I saw several big rigs fishtailing. A few of them lost control.

Many of the problems I spotted on the highway were the result of speed and the black ice conditions on the roads.

And in several spots traffic was backed up for miles.

I did start to slide at one point, but I was only going about 30 MPH, so I was able to steer into the slide and the car straightened up. It was a white knuckle drive and took about an hour longer than expected. But I made it home safely.

Please stay off the roads if you can.