At least 6 dead in 133-car pileup in Fort Worth, Texas

133-car pileup in Texas
(Image credit: Screenshot/YouTube/AP)

At least six people were killed and 65 others hospitalized in a massive wreck on I-35 in Forth Worth, Texas, early Thursday. Three of the hospitalized people are in critical condition, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports. In all, 133 cars, trucks, vans, and 18-wheelers collided in the express lane amid icy weather.

"The scene we saw today is one really unlike one probably any of us have ever seen and one we pray to God we never see again," said Fort Worth Police Chief Neil Noakes.

YouTube YouTube
Watch On

First responders had to use hydraulic tools to remove some people from their vehicles, and as they worked their way through the wreckage, medics marked the vehicles they searched to avoid duplicative efforts as they hurried to get people out of the sub-freezing temperatures. "I was looking in my rearview mirror and it was like watching the hand of God move these cars up around me in the ice," a driver named Shane, who stopped just short of the pileup, told the Star-Telegram. When he got out of his car on the highway, he added, "it was literally like stepping on an ice rink."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

There were other deadly crashes in Texas as a frigid storm created icy conditions from Texas to southern New Jersey. In Austin, five people were sent to the hospital from a 26-car pileup, USA Today reports, and three people were killed in two crashes in Dallas late Wednesday and Thursday, one of them involving 18 vehicles. The storm also knocked out power to along the 1,500-mile stretch of storm, and 66,000 customers in Texas, 41,000 in Kentucky, and 31,000 in West Virginia were still without power late Thursday, USA Today says.

Explore More
Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.