NTSB To Investigate Massive Ft Worth Pileup
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported recently that the National Transportation Safety Board is beginning an investigation into the recent deadly 133-car pileup along the TEXPress HOT lanes on Interstate 35 West in Fort Worth, one of the most cataclysmic pileups in American history.
The probe by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), a small and independent federal agency that is responsible for investigating transportation accidents, conducting studies, and issuing recommendations to improve transportation security, will reportedly center on ice prevention methods used on I-35W’s TEXpress lanes, variable-price toll lanes in the Interstate 35 median that are allegedly designed to increase freeway capacity and allow motorists to pay their way out of congestion in the primary lanes.
According to local authorities, the pileup occurred between 6:00 a.m. and 6:15 a.m. Central Standard Time (CST.) A brief freezing rain shower created a layer of black ice across the TEXpress toll lanes. Cars. trucks, SUVs, and tractor-trailers lost control as they crossed a small hill just past the 28th street exit, smashing and crunching into each other in a snowballing chaotic pileup. A private consortium was responsible for building the TEXpress lanes and is also responsible for ice removal along the corridor; it is unclear whether they were aware of or acted to counteract the ice buildup at the accident site.
