DALLAS (1080 KRLD) - Police, firefighters and paramedics have responded to hundreds of crashes across the Metroplex because of icy roads.
Fort Worth police say they responded to 209 crashes from 4am to 10 am Thursday. At one point, the fire department said 30 units were only working crashes.
The ambulance provider, MedStar, says it sent ambulances to 46 crashes from 4 am through 7:30. Police, fire and MedStar were working together at the Fort Worth Emergency Operations Center Thursday morning.
Six different crashes were reported near Loop 820 and Marine Creek Parkway. In those crashes, MedStar transported three people, but they are all expected to recover.
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"The black ice on the bridges and overpasses are obviously taking people by surprise, so it's a very dangerous situation," says MedStar's Matt Zavadsky.
TxDOT had started pre-treating roads, focusing on bridges and overpasses, before the precipitation started, laying a saltwater solution on the roads.
"What we don't want to have happen is ice bonding onto the roadway, so if we have a brine solution out there, that helps," says TxDOT's Val Lopez. "Our main goal here is to make driving conditions as safe as possible, so the structures that typically ice over, crews focused on them."
But Lopez says TxDOT had crews on standby to respond to icy areas Thursday morning.
Both Lopez and Zavadsky have been urging people to stay off the roads because of the icy conditions.
"It's often very difficult to tell when those driving conditions are going to change," Zavadsky says. "So, from the minute you leave to the minute you arrive at your destination, just consider every roadway as being covered with ice."
Zavadsky says drivers will also see more police, fire and paramedics working crashes, and they could be blocking lanes.