COMFORT, Texas — Traffic came to a standstill overnight off I-10 in Kimble County.
TxDOT San Angelo reported icy roadways that stranded hundreds of motorists for hours. Some of those drivers told KENS 5 they were stuck in static traffic for anywhere between 13 and 16 hours.
“We got (to) around Junction city around 4:30 p.m. (Thursday), we ended up moving out of there around 7 or 8:00 this morning,” said Brandon James, a trucker traveling to San Antonio from Denver.
James said he’s used to seeing ice on the roadways, but described this incident as “crazy."
“It was pileup after pileup; ice, ice, ice,” James said.
Joe Preston is a trucker from Idaho, and said the overnight mess was “chaos.”
“No one could catch their tires or tread or anything like that,” Preston said.
The icy roadways, combined with the Texas Hill County terrain, caused dangerous conditions for drivers. Some said the icy hills were making it difficult for trucks to navigate, especially with traffic completely stopped.
“Going down that hill, with the ice on it, at 40,000 pounds, you can easily kill yourself. The trailer is going to take you where it wants you to go,” said Richard Hardy, a trucker from Houston.
“People are sliding, people were stuck on the hills,” added James. “If you have an 18-wheeler and he’s jammed up, and he’s going uphill, then he’s pretty much done.”
The long wait caused other problems for drivers. TxDOT said that commuters were running out of gas and crews were working to help the stranded drivers.
It was so cold that the tires on some vehicles froze to the ground.
“We actually kind of had to wedge our tires out,” James said. “We were frozen to the ground, we were there so long, frozen to the ground.”
KENS 5 caught up with the truckers at the Love’s Truck Stop in Comfort, after they finally made it past the mess.
They had some advice for Texans navigating icy roadways.
“All I can say that’s good advice is (get) new tires, take your time and, if you are scared, get out of the way,” James said.
“Just everybody be careful out there, take your time. Slower is better than never,” added Preston.
Around noon on Friday, TxDOT reported the roadway was back open, but traffic was still moving slow.