Good Samaritan & His Hummer Saving Stranded Drivers
DENTON (CBS 11 NEWS) - Icy roads in Denton on Friday night snarled traffic as big rigs littered the roads and highways which were stuck in their own tracks.
Several inches of snow piled up on the sides of I-35E. Once the sun set, the fluffy precipitation turned into a hardened mess.
The conditions forced many truck drivers off the road who could not make it up even the slightest inclines due to the ice.
"When you're wasting my clock, I only got 14 hours a day to work, 11 hours to drive. So I mean it's frustrating," Malachi McPhail, a truck driver passing through Denton.
Several truck drivers were either forced to abandoned their rigs or hope help would arrive.
The conditions got so bad, even the crews tasked with clearing the road got stuck.
"I pulled the brakes and you know," said one truck driver named Luis. "I lost control because I pulled the brake and this is ice."
But just when it seemed they were all stuck in a rut, help came barreling up the highway.
Using his Hummer, Jerry Donaldson hooked up with a jackknifed FedEx track on I-35E. A few adjustments later, Donaldson got the truck back on the road and the traffic once again moving.
"People are stranded on the side of the highway and they don't have no help and all because all the tow trucks are tied up," said Donaldson.
On a busy night when many were stuck on the road, truckers like McPhail just wanted to find a safe place and get home.
"It makes a lot more sense if other people got off the road and allowed the drivers (to drive)," said McPhail. "When you don't need to be driving, four-wheelers shouldn't be driving."
The City of Denton planned to have crews out sanding in troubled spots, working around the clock in an attempt to battle the slippery conditions.