Posted on 02/11/2021 11:16:05 AM PST by USA Conservative
A pileup just north of downtown Fort Worth has been deemed a “mass casualty event” by officials early Thursday morning.
The major crash was first reported around roughly 6 a.m., and the highway remains closed in that area as officials work to clear the scene. At least five people have died in the pileup, according to the Associated Press. Up to 100 cars were involved in the crashes. Police said dozens were hospitalized for treatment.
Fort Worth Fire Department spokesman Mike Drivdahl said authorities were going to each vehicle to assess medical needs after the “mass casualty incident” involving tractor-trailers and other vehicles on Interstate 35. The freeway will be closed all day “to remove vehicles one by one,” he said. The official cause of the crash has not been determined, as officials prepare for a lengthy investigation, but there were several reports of black ice earlier in the morning throughout North Texas. One of our readers in Texas sends us a video that shows how the massive pileup started.
Video below:
(video uploaded on the site)
Thirty-six people have been taken to hospitals with varying degrees of injuries, according to the spokesman. Authorities had to use the Jaws of Life to pry open vehicles and free those trapped inside them.
First responders said there are still some cars wedged underneath other vehicles, causing some of the uncertainty around how many causalities there are, but they added there are some fatalities still likely on the scene and it could take some time to reach the bodies.
A video from the aftermath of the pileup:
First responder teams sent 14 ambulances and an ambulance bus to the scene to provide onsite care. The crash was declared a “mass casualty” event. Officials said they had used the bus to keep victims from developing hypothermia as well.
Always blaming the blacks. Das raciss'
:-P
Fed Ex driver was plowing along and not even trying to slow down. He got airborne.
>>Something was wrong before the FedEx truck showed up.
True and he was driving too fast for weather conditions with limited visibility.
It’s like the jackasses who ride 15 feet off someone’s bumper on a highway.
I deal with traffic safety routinely in my line of work. Without seeing the tail lights of the FedEx truck I wouldn’t even speculate about what was happening there. If black ice was the cause then he could have been standing on his brake pedal to no avail.
Clearly the accident was already sufficiently blocking the road as the cameraman was videoing the scene.
Never follow trucks closely. (or cars)
Never trust anyone on the road. They will jump out in front of you, blow stop signs, red lights, pedestrians, animals, will pop out in front of you, whatever.
Keep your eyes on the road.
That’s what my beloved father taught me. And I taught my own family.
Rubbernecking would indicate he’s driving. I don’t see the camera panning/moving as it would in a car.
Massive pileups happen regularly. It’s not as if each one is a surprise! Slippery highways and poor visibility happen a few times each winter.
So people act as if it never happened before and as if they don’t know what can happen if they don’t adjust their driving accordingly.
It will happen again, and again. And it will be Breaking News again and again.
I saw lousy driving on ice in Massachusetts as well. A near 20-car accident averted as people (including the car I was riding in) spun around 180 degrees as other drivers attempted to avoid each others’ fishtails.
If you look at any technical resource related to highway operations and roadway capacity, the conventional wisdom is that a roadway lane with no interruptions or impediments (driveways or traffic signals, for example) will handle 2,000 passenger cars per hour at its design speed. That doesn't vary by speed, either. Motorists traveling at higher speeds will tend to drive far apart, while those at low speeds will travel close together. The effective operating capacity is still the same: about 2,000 passenger cars per hour.
Transportation officials in some cities like New York City and Los Angeles will say they get higher numbers -- like 2,100 or 2,200 -- because people tend to travel closer together in those crazy urban environments.
None of this is a good sign, folks. Your basic rule of thumb for driving is to follow the "two-second rule" -- i.e., you should always leave at least two seconds of reaction time between yourself and the vehicle in front of you under normal conditions.
The two-second rule translates to a roadway lane capacity of 1,800 passenger cars per hour, not 2,000+ ...
- There are 60 seconds in a minute, and 60 minutes in an hour
- 60 seconds x 60 minutes = 3,600 seconds per hour
- 3,600 per hour x 0.5 vehicles per second (i.e., one vehicle every two seconds) = 1,800 vehicles per hour
FOLLOW THAT TWO-SECOND RULE, FOLKS!!
If you realize that the highway is icing over it’s as much a clue to stay off the roads as high floods or standing water on a highway is.
“I despise rubberneckers the most.”
Rubbernecking is heavily fined in the UK.
One or more Officers at any accident scene are there to move traffic along; eyes straight ahead. ANY driver who pauses to gawk gets nicked.
Since that is in Texas where snow is a rarity, I'm not placing the blame on anyone, especially there is no snow on the ground that would indicate icy conditions.......
I live in S.E. Michigan where black ice is a problem under certain conditions and was involved in a wreck under those conditions even tho I had taken every precaution while driving.
I was coming home at about 2:00 a.m. in my MG on a 65 MPH freeway with very little traffic and doing only 35 MPH since it appeared to be slippery from the rain drizzle.
About a half mile ahead I saw lots of flashing lights and realized there was a major problem ahead so I took my foot off the accelerator pedal and slowly tried to steer my car to the right onto the shoulder which was snow covered in an attempt to gain traction. Well that never worked out, I immediately went into a slow spin, heading to the right and ended up hitting the guardrail sideways with my front end and sliding up with my front end hanging over the guard rail, totally destroying my front end suspension......
Crap like that happens and it usually begins with the first accident not realizing the severity of the road conditions and the subsequent collisions occurring no matter the distance between themselves and the vehicle ahead of them..........
The design looks good. My only quibble is that perhaps I would have wanted to see a wider right-side shoulder in light of the fact that there's a concrete barrier there instead of a pavement edge or curb and landscaped median.
That video shows a speed limit sign of 75MPH. Speed like that and black ice, or any color of ice, don’t mix.
Ever hear of ‘too fast for conditions’?
I’m fine with that. I’ve seen traffic tie-ups that are strictly from lookey-loos slowing to a crawl to look at the other side of the highway or even something happening off the highway over on a feeder road.
That’s said, if weather conditions are such that one side of the highway iced up, chances are there is some ice on the other side of the highway as well.
If a driver pulls over and gets out to watch (or document or assist) that’s not technically rubbernecking, no craning of the neck while in a moving vehicle.
Was probably texting his squeeze at the truck stop.
Such sliding can even occur on surface roads (wet, not even iced) at non-highway speeds.
I’ve done my best to drive defensively when cars are sliding about. Lesson one is lowering speed below the limit.
I’ve had close calls but have avoided such accidents and it is nerveshaking when it happens.
Trying to find “something good” on Sirrus.
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