DALLAS — As night fell on Monday, wet roads refroze.
"All this ice," said motorist Jose Velasquez. "It creeps up on you and you don't know which way it's gonna go, so you gotta go real slow."
Driving conditions are especially bad on overpasses. Driving onto Loop 12 from Interstate 30 in Dallas turned out to be a bad idea, since it was one of the slickest spots in the city.
Spinning tires and sliding vehicles became a regular sight Monday evening. Then the driver of a tractor-trailer car carrier had to hold on after losing control on the ice until his rig jackknifed and shut down the ramp for good.
"He should have not slammed on his brakes, but like everybody that gets on a bridge he slammed on his brakes — then you have that," said Greg Joyner, who saw what happened.
Hours earlier came an even rarer sight — Jeeps pulling out 18-wheelers that got stuck.
"We wanted to get together and do some good for people — especially when we have Jeeps that are really good to do it," said Jeep owner Nora Cortez.
The Chisholm Trail Jeep Club gassed up and went to work Monday on Spur 408 southeast of Dallas. Jeeps strapped themselves together in a train, then pulled in unison to rescue big rigs.
"The highway was shut down. There's no wreckers here to help out. We got a bunch of guys together and we freed the highway. That's a pretty good accomplishment," said Jason Gardner of Arlington.
The group pulled out at least five tractor-trailers.
Monday proved a tough lesson for a lot of drivers. Winter weather is unforgiving.
And even if it doesn't look that bad, frozen roads aren't always easy to see.
Many downtown streets were dry Monday evening, and so was a large stretch of North Central Expressway from downtown to NorthPark Center.
Shoulders of roads remained slippery, and overpasses were a problem everywhere.
