![]() ![]() At one point, he said, one of the ambulances was hit, but it sustained only minor damage and the crew members were fine.ĭrivdahl said crews expect to keep the interstate closed for several hours. He said his crews carry a sand and salt mixture in the ambulances, which they began using at the scene. “The roadway was so treacherous from the ice that several of the first responders were falling on the scene,” Zavadsky said. Rescue crews faced slippery conditions and used anything they could - sand, salt and kitty litter - to melt the ice as they triaged patients injured in the crash, Drivdahl said. The last thing we need is people who don't need to be out getting into any type of accidents." "We have a lot of emergency crews doing a lot of work. "If you don't have to get out, please don't get out," Drivdahl said in a live phone interview on NBC 5. Authorities said it will "take a lot of time" to clear the damage and are recommending people stay home and off the roads if possible. Graphic Video Shows Cars, 18-Wheelers Collide on Icy I-35W in Fort WorthĪs many as 100 cars are estimated to be tangled in the pileup, Zavadski said earlier Thursday morning. Mike Drivdahl with the Fort Worth Fire Department said Thursday morning that firefighters were going car-to-car, looking for people in need of medical care. NBC 5 Meteorologist Grant Johnston said a tenth of an inch of ice fell in parts of North Texas during the morning commute, which resulted in ice accumulations on many roads, bridges and overpasses. Those trying to reach loved ones involved in the crash are asked to call 81. The location is the Riverside Community Center at 3700 East Belknap Street. The two toll lanes are within two concrete barrier walls, leaving little room if any, for disabled drivers to escape the oncoming traffic.Ī family reunification location was set up for families to pick up and meet drivers or passengers involved in the pileup. The names of those killed in the crash will be released after their families have been notified of their deaths.įirst Responders Say the Deadly Crash on I-35W is One They Train for, But Hope to Never SeeĪt the scene of the crash, which stretches for more than a half-mile in the southbound toll lanes between NE 28th Street and Northside Drive, a tangle of semitrailers, cars and trucks had crashed into each other and had turned every which way, with some vehicles on top of others. "We did see a large number of people who were victims of this accident that were in scrubs, that had hospital IDs on which, to be quite frank, made it a little bit more stressful for those of us, because in some cases some of us might know those folks," said Zavadsky. However, there were frontline health care workers involved who appeared to be leaving or heading to a shift at the time of the crash. There were no children involved in the accident, likely due to the time of day. “Not only does each individual hospital do it they coordinate with fellow hospitals," Dallas Fort Worth Hospital Council President and CEO Stephen Love said. "They coordinate with people like MedStar so they can take the patients and distribute them to the appropriate care they need.” "This is an incident that our agencies try to train for but hope and pray never happens," MedStar Mobile Healthcare spokesman Matt Zavadsky said. MedStar Gives Latest on Fort Worth I-35W Deadly PileupĪrea hospitals and first responders train for and coordinate to receive patients in a mass casualty situation like this and compare it to the response to a plane crash or tornado. Southbound TEXpress lanes from Pharr Street to 28th Street remained close as of Saturday morning. ![]() The interstate main lanes reopened around 5:30 p.m Friday along with TEXpress northbound lanes. Crashes occurred in the southbound, interior North Texas Express toll lanes of Interstate 35WĪt least six people have died and dozens more were injured in a massive pileup involving at least 133 vehicles on the North Texas Express toll lanes in Fort Worth early Thursday morning that occurred after overnight sleet made for treacherous driving conditions.Īll southbound lanes of Interstate 35W north of downtown, including the interior toll lanes where the crashes took place, remained closed through the day and overnight as dozens of firefighters and other first responders continued to work in bitterly cold temperatures to clear the damaged vehicles from the highway.Officials estimate at least 133 vehicles were involved in the pileups.Six people killed in massive pileup 65 people treated at hospitals for injuries including 36 who were taken by ambulance.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |