Several people killed in 70-vehicle wreck due to weather in Texas

The crash was one of several reported in the Dallas-Fort Worth and Austin areas during dicey weather conditions Thursday, including freezing rain and accumulating ice.

In Fort Worth, the I-35W pileup — reported around 6 a.m. CT — involved 75 to 100 vehicles over a roughly mile-long stretch, Fort Worth police Officer Daniel Segura said.

“We are going vehicle by vehicle by vehicle to make sure that anybody that is still trapped in the vehicles has been extricated if possible,” Fort Worth fire spokesman Mike Drivdahl said late Thursday morning.

Numerous vehicles were piled up on this section of the highway alone.

Areas of light freezing rain and some sleet were in the Dallas-Fort Worth area Thursday morning around the time of the wreck. About a 10th of an inch of ice accumulated just north of Fort Worth, the National Weather Service said.

“The weather conditions are definitely a factor” in the I-35W wreck, Segura said.

With temperatures in the mid-20s Thursday morning, first responders were taking steps to keep people warm — including those who weren’t injured.

Ice storm causes treacherous roads and Covid-19 vaccination delays as it sweeps across South

“We were able to get a couple of buses from the fire department to actually put some of the victims from the crash — who were not patients but could’ve become patients because of hypothermia — into the buses so they got out of the cold environment,” said Matt Zavadsky, spokesman for the MedStar ambulance service.

The area is under a winter weather advisory until 6 p.m. because of ice accumulation, which would result in “very slippery sidewalks, roads and bridges,” the weather service said.

“So many traffic/accidents this morning, especially across the DFW Metroplex,” the Fort Worth weather office said in a tweet. “These events are so dangerous because the ice is spotty. We can’t stress enough that road conditions could go from good to dangerous within blocks. Take it slow out there… #dfwwx #ctxwx #txwx.”

In Austin, roughly a 180-mile drive south of Fort Worth, five people were taken to hospitals because of a pileup involving 26 vehicles on State Highway 45 on Thursday morning, the Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services Department said.

Ice had been reported on an overpass where the wreck happened, department Capt. Darren Noak told CNN.

CNN’s Juliana Battaglia contributed to this report.

source: cnn.com