bwdlionfan
06-21-2011, 08:04 PM
Did anyone see the footage of the wreck on I-35W today?
I was driving along in the left lane when suddenly traffic came to a halt. I couldn't tell what was going on, as the other two lanes were moving slowly but the left lane was completely stopped. After about 10 seconds or so I saw a little bit of black smoke just up ahead (maybe 5 cars or so in front of me). Then after another 5-10 seconds it got extremely thick and heavy black smoke, and I saw a man running away from it on the shoulder. Everyone proceeded to get out of the way, and it turned out there had been a UPS 18 wheeler driving in the left lane, with a normal pickup behind it, and some kind of large work truck behind it (carrying chemicals... acetylene being one of the chemicals). I got all the way across the highway to the other shoulder to exit when I saw the cab of the work truck on fire. Flames were up about 2-3 times the height of the cab with thick black smoke going everywhere. The center lane was even on fire, but there was nothing there to burn... some chemicals must have spilled. During all of this I failed to even see the pickup that had been crushed directly in front of the work truck (it was smashed in to the front of the work truck). It was smashed so small that I missed seeing it entirely. Unfortunately there was at least 1 fatality (the driver of the normal pick up). They had to shut down I-35 for a few hours, and I'm not sure if it's back open yet. The fire was so large that I felt the heat through my driver side door and I was 3 lanes away from the fire when I drove by.
I was driving along in the left lane when suddenly traffic came to a halt. I couldn't tell what was going on, as the other two lanes were moving slowly but the left lane was completely stopped. After about 10 seconds or so I saw a little bit of black smoke just up ahead (maybe 5 cars or so in front of me). Then after another 5-10 seconds it got extremely thick and heavy black smoke, and I saw a man running away from it on the shoulder. Everyone proceeded to get out of the way, and it turned out there had been a UPS 18 wheeler driving in the left lane, with a normal pickup behind it, and some kind of large work truck behind it (carrying chemicals... acetylene being one of the chemicals). I got all the way across the highway to the other shoulder to exit when I saw the cab of the work truck on fire. Flames were up about 2-3 times the height of the cab with thick black smoke going everywhere. The center lane was even on fire, but there was nothing there to burn... some chemicals must have spilled. During all of this I failed to even see the pickup that had been crushed directly in front of the work truck (it was smashed in to the front of the work truck). It was smashed so small that I missed seeing it entirely. Unfortunately there was at least 1 fatality (the driver of the normal pick up). They had to shut down I-35 for a few hours, and I'm not sure if it's back open yet. The fire was so large that I felt the heat through my driver side door and I was 3 lanes away from the fire when I drove by.