They say everything is bigger in Texas and unfortunately that seems to be true of the car accidents, too.
A 100+ car pileup shut down a stretch of Dallas-Fort Worth’s I-35 West for a few hours Thursday morning, NBC5 reports. The accident was caused by inclement weather conditions that have resulted in icy roads. Ambulances carrying teams of EMTs have been dispatched to the scene and rescue efforts are underway to extract drivers who are trapped in the wreckage.
First responders are calling this a “mass casualty event” (MCI), however, as of 9:00 a.m. CST there are no reports of deaths or life-threatening injuries in this massive pileup. EMTs have already managed to extract dozens of motorists but the wreckage and ice on the road have slowed the EMTs and Fire Fighters trying to aid drivers.
On a call with NBC5, Michael Drivdahl, of the Dallas Fire Department urged drivers to avoid these areas and roadways in general if they can.
Some of the cars in the wreck are completely unrecognizable, and when you see a lifted Tahoe with gnarly bumpers chewed up like the one in local weather forecaster Jason McLaughlin’s tweet, you know that the accident was bad. One truck transporting what looks like dealer Lexus SUVs even had some of it’s cargo come off the truck and hit other cars, adding to the chaos and danger.
To make matters worse that massive pileup is not even the first to be reported! Late Wednesday night, a smaller 18-car pileup (it’s rather unsettling to call this smaller) resulted in the death of one motorist on I-45, per CBS21.
All of the accidents are being attributed to icy road conditions. And it looks like Texas is in for still more unusually cold weather. Schools and COVID-19 vaccination centers are announcing closures to minimize the need for driving in such dangerous road conditions, per the Dallas Morning News.
You can mess with Texas all you want, but please, please, please don’t mess with icy roads. Drive safe, jalops.
UPDATE [Thursday, February 11, 2020, 01:23 PM CT]:
Local police confirmed there are five dead in the mass casualty incident and 36 people have been taken to hospitals. Officer Daniel Segura, a Fort Worth Police spokesperson, stated that the dead have not been publicly identified, as reported by CBS21.