In a dramatic crash that highlighted the dangerous road conditions in eastern Texas, a woman caught on video an 18-wheeler sliding down a hill and crashing into a traffic light.
Kristy Boyd captured video of traffic trying to make it up the icy Hawkins Parkway in Longview, Texas, on Tuesday, Jan. 16, when a car and a truck both started sliding backward.
In the beginning, the footage shows a car making it up over the top of the hill followed by a semi-truck.
The semi looks like it is going to make it to the top, but then a woman’s voice on the video says “it’s spinning.”
The footage cuts to the car at the bottom of the hill that has started slipping backward, and soon the truck comes back into view, sliding backward down the hill.
At an intersection, the truck veers to its left and hits a traffic light, which snags some electric wires above it.
It happened near a high school, but school had been canceled due to less than three inches of snow that fell on the area, the Review-Journal reports.
Longview police had warned drivers of slippery roads that day, and suggested people stay home unless they absolutely had to be out.
In Tyler, Texas, about 30 miles west of Longview, Texas DOT said crews had been clearing 18-wheelers that couldn’t make the climb all day.
The DOT said they were doing the same thing in the city of Tyler and around the eight-county district.
“Anywhere there is an incline or decline, motorists are having issues with getting their vehicles going or stopped and that will get worse tonight,” said Texas DOT District Engineer Glenn Green. “Temperatures are still very low and this ice will freeze again this evening making travel really difficult. Our crews will continue to work but we strongly encourage motorists to avoid travel.”
Boyd’s video has gone viral on Facebook.
In just 24 hours, it had gotten 4.8 million views, 12,000 reactions, and 90,000 shares.
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