The state of Texas apparently disagrees with all those who decry chemical de-icers.
State: De-icing chemicals
not to blame for traffic accidents
By Robert Crowe - Express-News
Transportation officials said they have not found any evidence that de-icing chemicals used last week in anticipation of a hard freeze were responsible for any of the nearly 400 traffic collisions that clogged city freeways Tuesday.
Still, a police source close to the investigations into the collisions, which for several hours backed up traffic on the city’s most heavily-traveled thoroughfares, said investigators continue to link the magnesium chloride to some wrecks.
An official with the Texas Department of Transportation said Friday that the agency continues to review the causes of dozens of accidents, while also analyzing its materials in the wake of scores of wrecks that police initially attributed to the use of the de-icing substance.
“No conclusive evidence indicated that the anti-icing agent was responsible for these accidents,” Laura Lopez, TxDOT’s San Antonio spokeswoman, said in a prepared statement.
Because the investigations into the wrecks continues, Officer Joe Rios, a San Antonio Police Department spokesman, said SAPD could not comment about the causes.
However, many officers who responded to the Tuesday accidents — which occurred across the city on U.S. 281 and Interstates 35 and 37, among others — remain convinced that TxDOT’s chemical spray contributed to many wrecks, said a police source familiar with the investigation but unauthorized to speak.
A TxDOT review of available police reports for 46 of the wrecks indicated that 15 of them occurred on or near a freeway bridge, and TxDOT only applies the liquid de-icer, magnesium chloride, to bridge decks, Lopez said.
Many of the “bridges” that TxDOT sprayed included many miles of elevated freeways surrounding downtown, the police source said.
Some San Antonio police officers said Tuesday that the anti-icing chemicals might have mixed with existing road oils to create especially slick surfaces, something TxDOT is investigating, Lopez said.
TxDOT sprayed the city’s roadways Monday night to prepare for a hard freeze with precipitation, although those weather conditions did not occur.
Magnesium chloride and other liquid de-icers have been linked to accidents in Colorado, New Mexico and other states.
The police source said TxDOT workers acknowledged a link to Tuesday’s accidents when they placed crushed gravel and sand on accident-prone areas that had been sprayed with the de-icer.
“That was the only way they could stop the accidents,” the source said. “There was no ice on the roads. Why would they do that if they didn’t think it (the de-icer) was a problem?”
Officers responded to nearly 400 wrecks that day. On a typical day, officers respond to about 140. At least one person died Tuesday after his pickup skidded into a guardrail on a ramp from Interstate 10 to Interstate 37 near downtown. Speed was the main cause, but the de-icer was listed as a road condition, according to the police report.
TxDOT’s Lopez said many accidents happened on areas that TxDOT did not spray with its chemicals. The use of its anti-icing chemicals actually minimized accidents in Austin, Kerrville and New Braunfels, the agency said Friday.
Those areas, however, experienced freezing temperatures and precipitation.
Lopez said TxDOT is testing the materials at its own lab, and the material supplier, Southwest Envirotech, is conducting its own analysis. An equipment review found that the trucks used to apply the agent were working properly, TxDOT officials said.
“TxDOT will continue to review our application methods and make any necessary improvements,” Lopez said.
“TxDOT is committed to cooperating with SAPD to maximize safety and minimize risk during future ice conditions.”
The agency has not decided whether to discontinue its use of the liquid de-icer, which lessens the need for sand.
TxDOT urges motorists to reduce driving speeds and avoid abrupt stops in winter conditions.