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160 crashes in 8 hours: Drivers hit Dallas roads after black ice re-freeze

Fire officials said Friday morning was the worst this week for number of crashes and accidents.

DALLAS — The ice storm wasn't done with us yet.

While temperatures rose above freezing Thursday afternoon, improving road conditions, the melted precipitation simply froze over again Friday morning, causing widespread traffic problems across North Texas.

In fact, Dallas Fire-Rescue officials told WFAA that Friday morning was the worst day this week for wrecks and stalled vehicles. Dallas fire crews had reports of 160 accidents from midnight to 8 a.m., and the conditions weren't immediately improving - it was still at or below freezing for much of North Texas in the heart of the morning commute.

By 8:30 a.m., the number of crashes had climbed to 170.

On the Fort Worth side, Medstar, the main ambulance service in the city, had responded to 50 crashes with injuries between 6 p.m. Thursday and 5 a.m. Friday. By comparison, MedStar had responded to 17 crashes with injuries all day Thursday until 6 p.m. 

The number of crashes kept rising: MedStar officials by 9 a.m. reported 19 more crashes, bringing the total to 69 since 6 p.m. Thursday.

Two people died in separate Fort Worth crashes late Thursday night in which a stalled vehicle was struck by another vehicle.

It wasn't yet clear how or if weather played a factor, though hazardous driving conditions were being reported across North Texas.

WFAA reporter Tiffany Liou and photographer Thomas Costley were on the road early Friday in Dallas County. Here's a thread of what they were seeing, including a standstill of traffic on I-35 near downtown:

We're tracking the latest road conditions and what we're seeing here.

Get the latest weather timeline and forecast, including when all of this might be over with, here.

More weather coverage from the WFAA team here:

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