by: Nexstar, NBCDFW, Rachel Estrada
Posted: Feb 11, 2021 / 1:05 pm CST
Updated: February 11, 2021 / 1:05 p.m. CST
DALLAS (AP) – At least five people were killed and dozens injured in a massive crash involving 75 to 100 vehicles on an icy Texas freeway on Thursday, police said when a winter storm dropped freezing rain, sleet and snow in parts of the United States
At the scene of the accident on Interstate 35 near Fort Worth, a tangle of semitrailers, cars, and trucks had crashed into each other and spun in all directions, with some vehicles lying on top of others.
“The vehicles are just mutilated,” said Matt Zavadsky, spokesman for MedStar, which provides ambulance services for the region. “Several tow trucks are on site. It will take a long time to unravel this wreck. “
Thirty-six people were taken to hospitals after the crash, some with serious injuries, Zavadsky said.
The police set up a reunification center for family members in a community center.
“The road was so treacherous from the ice that some of the first responders fell on the scene,” said Zavadsky.
He said his crews had a sand and salt mixture in the ambulances that they used on site. At one point, he said, one of the ambulances was hit, but there was only minor damage to it and the crew members were fine.
Further south in Austin, more than two dozen vehicles were caught in a pile on an icy road and one person was injured, emergency officials said.
Elsewhere, ice storm warnings from Arkansas to Kentucky were in place while another winter storm was supposed to bring snow to the mid-Atlantic states, the National Weather Service said.
Firefighters respond to a cluster of vehicles in Fort Worth Thursday morning after thin layers of ice formed on highways in north Texas overnight.
According to the poweroutage.us website, which records utility reports, more than 125,000 households and businesses were without power as of Thursday morning, mostly in Kentucky and West Virginia.
Meanwhile, central Kentucky officials urged people to stay home because of the freezing conditions.
Kentucky governor Andy Beshear said state offices would be closed because of the weather. He declared the state of emergency that would free up funding and help authorities coordinate when they respond to reports of slippery roads and run down power lines.
The crews responded to numerous calls from rundown icy tree branches and power lines, Lexington police said in a tweet urging people not to travel “unless absolutely necessary”.
