(CNN) – At least nine people had died in car accidents caused by winter storms in the Dallas-Fort Worth region of Texas on Thursday night, according to a CNN count.
A 133-car accident on Interstate 35 West in Fort Worth killed at least six people on Thursday, according to Fort Worth police chief Neil Noakes. The crash was reported around 6 a.m. CT and lasted about 1.6 kilometers (one mile).
The incident was one of several reports in the Dallas-Fort Worth and Austin areas during uncertain weather events on Thursday, including freezing rain and icing.
Dallas Police Department spokeswoman Tamika Dameron said that at least three people were killed by icy roads in Dallas.
A person was killed around 11:15 PM in an accident involving 18 cars on the Julius Schepps Highway. Wednesday. According to an incident report, a man was trapped against a retaining wall during the crash.
Less than two hours later and nearly 3 miles away, a man “was driving” on the same icy highway when he lost control and hit the median strip, according to an accident report. The driver and passenger of that vehicle were pronounced dead on the spot, and a third person in the backseat was taken to a hospital in critical condition, according to the report.
Texas authorities have not identified the victims of the Dallas accidents.
According to Dameron, more than 300 accidents were reported at night, with 103 major accidents, 133 major highway accidents, 86 minor accidents, four minor accidents involving city teams, two major accidents involving city teams and one accident involving city teams. the highway.
65 people sought treatment after the Fort Worth crash
At least 65 people needed medical treatment in local hospitals after Thursday’s crash in Fort Worth, fire chief Jim Davis said at a news conference.
Numerous patients were treated and released from the crash site, said Matt Zavadsky, a spokesperson for MedStar’s ambulance service. While there were 65 patients seeking medical attention, “that number is likely to continue to rise,” Zavadsky added.
All of the victims on the scene were adults, Zavadsky said.
Davis said 36 people were flown from the scene of the accident.
Four officers were also injured, three of whom were involved in the accident on their way to work. According to Noakes, the police chief, one was injured while working on the scene.
Three victims were taken to hospital in critical condition, Zavadsky said. Shelter buses were taken to the place to care for the victims.
The crash occurred over an area of more than 2 kilometers, requiring the installation of multiple divisions, including extraction, sorting, handling and transportation, Davis said.
According to Davis, many people were trapped in their vehicles and needed hydraulic equipment to free them.
More than 80 police units responded, including the special events unit, which is designed to respond to large-scale incidents, he said.
Zavadsky said there were 13 ambulances on the scene, along with intensive care paramedics and supervision units.
“This is an incident that our agencies are training for, but they hope and pray it will never happen,” said Zavadsky.
In investigating the accident, “the ice played a role,” said Noakes. He couldn’t tell if that section of the road had been treated for ice.
There were spots of light freezing rain and some sleet in the Dallas-Fort Worth area of Texas on Thursday morning around the time of the accident. About one-tenth of an inch of ice accumulated north of Fort Worth, the National Weather Service said.
The area was under a winter weather warning until Thursday evening due to icing, which would result in “very slippery sidewalks, roads and bridges,” the weather service said.
In Austin, about 180 miles south of Fort Worth, five people were taken to hospitals on Thursday morning in a 26-vehicle collision on State Highway 45, the County Department of Emergency Medical Services said. Austin-Travis.
Ice was reported on an overpass where the accident took place, department head Darren Noak told CNN.
CNN’s Konstantin Toropin, Carma Hassan, Jason Hanna and Juliana Battaglia contributed to this report.