Shocking video shows 18-wheeler barrel into cars during Texas pileup
February 12, 2021 | 3:00pm | Updated
Shocking video taken from the Texas pileup that killed six and injured dozens more shows the moment an 18-wheeler crashed into a heap of cars and nearly flipped over a highway divider.
The clip, taken early Thursday on an icy section of I-35 in Fort Worth outside Dallas, shows a FedEx truck barreling down the roadway and colliding with two cars, which had already crashed and were smoking, before hitting the back of another 18-wheeler.
The video, taken from the opposite side of the roadway before sunrise, shows how the massive transport truck didn’t just crash into the two smaller vehicles but actually drove on top of them in the 100-vehicle pileup.
Icy conditions on the roadway, brought in by overnight sleet and freezing rain from Winter Storm Shirley, sent 65 people to the hospital and killed six, some of whom were identified Friday.
The Tarrant County medical examiner announced the dead include William Williams, 54, Christopher Vardy, 49, Michael Wells, 47, Aaron Watson, 45, and Tiffany Gerred, 34.
The crashes happened around the 6 a.m. rush hour — just as many people, mostly essential workers, were headed to their jobs, Matt Zavadsky, a spokesman for MedStar Ambulance Service, told FOX 4.
Cars and trucks are wedged together after a deadly multi-vehicle pileup on ice-covered I-35 in a still image from video in Fort Worth, Texas, on Feb. 11, 2021.
“If you think about the timing of the crash and people who can’t opt not to travel, it’s going to be your front-line health care workers and others, truckers as well,” the spokesman told the outlet.
He said many of the injured had hospital IDs or were wearing scrubs.
Late Thursday, a family friend of Watson said it became apparent something was wrong when a location app on his phone showed he’d been on I-35 for hours, CBS 11 reported.
The friend said Watson leaves behind two kids and a wife who “is just trying to hold on.”
Vardy was a married father and beloved church leader and volunteer at the First United Methodist Church in Fort Worth, the Star-Telegram reported. He worked as a program manager at InterConnect Wiring, a company that provides aerospace electrical products to the military, the outlet reported.
A cousin of Gerred took to Facebook to share about her loss.
“My heart is broken. My cousin, Tiffany Gerred passed away in the 100 car pileup in Fort Worth yesterday. We were partners in crime as kids. I always looked forward to holidays when Tiff would come in town,” Patricia Marie Wright wrote in the post.
“She was the epitome of ‘cool’ and I wanted to be just like her. I cannot believe this is real. Please keep our family in prayers.”
It took more than 24 hours for the crash’s remnants to be cleared from the highway, CBS 11 reported. Southbound lanes on I-35 weren’t completely reopened until Friday