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Snow Packed Side Streets A Problem For Drivers

DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - Texas Department of Transportation road crews hit the freeways first after snow fell early Thursday morning. Many side streets however, remained a problem for drivers.

At Hillcrest and Spring Valley at North Dallas, total strangers helped the stranded.

"I'm trying to get them started. I'm trying to get this lady in the Mercedes going," Gregory Woods said.

Foster Richardson helped, too. He patrolled the hill for a while, helping drivers whose cars didn't have the traction of his four-wheeler. "I mean, I'm able to get up here in my Jeep but some of these cars can't, so I've got to help them out, right?" he said.

Access roads of some highways received the attention of sand trucks, but most residential streets were left alone. And not everyone handled it perfectly. One car in Garland slid off the road when the driver hit an icy patch turning onto a side street. Tow truck operator Dino Muskic said it seems all of North Texas needs help. "Unbelievable, gosh we stay busy we can't take the calls, we've got like a hundred calls running, all the phones ring, we try to do what we can but we can, but we also have to be safe, too."

Balky traffic signals worsened some situations.

One signal on Forest Lane near Central Expressway backed up traffic for miles when it started blinking red in all directions. CBS 11 News caught up with city of Dallas streets worker Larry Edens as he fixed it. "Sometimes it's really just convincing the computer that it's really not that bad after all. It looks like this one decided to quit," he said as. A few adjustments and some soothing words later and suddenly there were green lights and not just flashing red ones. And Edens, like other North Texans, was off for the next snowy problem to overcome.

(©2014 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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