Viewpoint by Isaiah Smith/entertainment editor

Ice—every Texas driver’s worst nightmare. However, that nightmare is exacerbated by the drivers who race down streets as if it were 90 degrees outside.

During the snow and ice of the past few weeks, I was close to an accident three times because people were going too fast and were unable to control their vehicles.

On Interstate 20 where it intersects with I-35 West in Fort Worth Wednesday, Jan. 17, 19-year-old Cassidy Alvarez went to assist her mother, who had been in a car accident. A truck going too fast on the ice lost control and hit the police car at the scene of the accident before hitting Alvarez.

The teen was killed.

People forget or ignore that the speed limit signs on the highway are for optimal road conditions.
Snow and ice in Texas are not optimal.

During the icy blast I had to get to NW Campus for class. Snow and ice were on the medians, and the odds of patchy, black ice were good. People were still speeding by my carpool going 10 or 20 miles over the speed limit.

Texas is known as the friendly state because we drive friendly, but the moment it starts snowing and icing, all safety is forgotten and we just crash into everything.

What really frustrates me is that these dangerous drivers speeding around in the ice are, most likely, the same idiots who stay an entire car-length back from the white line at a stoplight. 

We have all seen them sitting way too far back at a light and blocking the turn lane. Pull up already! You are slowing everything down.

On days when it is 90 degrees, people drive slowly and stay way far back for no reason, but when it ices over, people speed as if they live in Michigan and drive on ice all the time.

In Dallas and Fort Worth Sunday, Jan. 14, police responded to 132 major auto accidents and 182 minor ones. Those numbers are not too bad, but I know Texans can do better.

Here, we barely get snow and ice. When we do, everything shuts down. Either people need to stay home when it is icy, or Texas should update the driver’s ed curriculum to better teach how to drive in icy weather.

One driver following the rules and being courteous helps ease traffic—we should all try to be that driver.