Four years after the deadliest multi-car pileup in North Texas history, families of victims and others devastated by the crash say it seems like the tragedy happened only yesterday.
“I will always feel like a part of me was left on that freeway,’’ said Suzette Kilbreath, who was traveling to her job at John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth when her SUV was struck by an 18-wheeler in the 130-vehicle pileup.
Kilbreath, who was among more than 40 drivers who suffered debilitating injuries, said she will spend the anniversary like any other day — driving to her full-time job, now in Irving, from her north Fort Worth home.
Others plan to mark the day with an appearance at Riverside Park, the site of a memorial in honor of family members who died in the crash. Among them are relatives of Tiffany Gerred, a 34-year-old mother who died instantly when she was struck by an 18-wheeler.
The Feb. 11, 2021, collision is frozen in the minds of North Texas as one of the deadliest crashes in state history, which killed six people and injured dozens. Vehicles slid on black ice after 36 consecutive hours of freezing temperatures. They struck narrow concrete barriers on the southbound lanes of the toll road, setting off a chain of secondary crashes that stretched 1,000 feet. The crash occurred on a 6.5-mile stretch of toll road that is used by tens of thousands of drivers daily.
An exclusive review by The Dallas Morning News showed that decisions made that morning by the private toll operator, North Tarrant Express Mobility Partners or NTE, contributed to the catastrophic crash. More broadly it also revealed a lack of general oversight by the Texas Department of Transportation of private toll operators — an issue that also was raised in “Toll Trap,” The News’ ongoing year-long investigation into the state’s toll roads.
A 2023 report by the National Transportation Safety Board also found that NTE contributed to the disaster by failing to deal with conditions created by freezing rain and mist. NTE crews had treated the road just days before the storm but had failed to apply a second layer of pretreatment that could have lessened the severity of the crash, federal investigators found.
Much of what The News uncovered is contained in the dozens of lawsuits filed by victims and family members, including the family of Tiffany Gerred, alleging the toll road operator was negligent when it left the road untreated on the morning before the crash.
Since the Gerred suit was filed more than three years ago, dozens of other suits and countersuits have been pending and have been consolidated into one action in the 153rd District Court of Tarrant County Judge Susan McCoy.
The Gerred’s family case was expected to go to trial Jan. 13, but the date is now expected to be reset for July 21, said Jason Stephens, the Fort Worth attorney who is representing the family.
“We look forward to presenting this case to a Tarrant County jury this summer,” Stephens said. “At its core, this case is about corporate accountability and making our toll roads safer.”
NTE spokesman Robert Hinkle said the company generally does not comment on pending litigation but was confident that it followed “broadly accepted and standardized protocols” for operations in snow and ice events.
“This was a terrible tragedy,” Hinkle wrote in an email in response to a request for an update on the status of the case.
In recent months, NTE filed motions for summary judgment, which McCoy denied.
With every day that passes, Kilbreath grows increasingly eager to see the court battle come to a conclusion.
“Not having a settlement makes the healing take longer,” she said, “and makes you feel worse. It is like you are just continually retraumatized.”
After the crash, firefighters had to extricate her and others who were trapped in their cars. She thought she would never make it out alive, she said. She suffered internal bleeding, broken bones at the base of her spine and terminal nerve damage. She still cannot sit on a flat surface or ride a bicycle.
The Fort Worth community has been deeply affected, said Stephens, the Gerred family’s attorney. And some families must relive the situation, he said. Cindy Gerred, Tiffany’s mother, must pass by the scene of the crash on her drive to and from work every day. She is constantly reminded of the horrific loss of her daughter, Stephens said.
The I-35W toll road is one of a handful of privately operated toll roads in Texas and one of many toll roads in North Texas. It was built as part of Texas’ decades-long toll-building spree.
From 2001 to 2021, The News’ Toll Trap investigation found, Texas built more toll roads than nearly all other states combined — 852 miles that could stretch across 13 eastern U.S. states — and has more toll road operators than any other, contributing to 128 facilities that set different toll rates and are governed by different safety standards. In Dallas County, nearly one-third of highways are dedicated to toll roads.
The state also earned the distinction of becoming among the first states in the U.S. to privatize its toll roads, but state lawmakers backed off the trend a decade ago after criticism that the deals limited public oversight.
Some state lawmakers have expressed concerns that the toll building spree, though necessary to address population growth, has created large and powerful bureaucracies unlike any other system in the country. The system, critics contend, lacks sufficient government oversight, in some cases circumventing traditional legal processes and focusing more on profits, they believe, than safety or treating customers fairly.
The News’ investigation found Texas is one of only a handful of states that criminalize toll drivers for unpaid fees and regularly issue arrest warrants over the debts.
On average, Texas seizes thousands of driver’s licenses a year and blocks vehicle registration stickers for unpaid toll fees. A total of 226,847 motorists last year received letters that their registration renewals would be blocked by just two of the state’s largest tollway authorities — the North Texas Tollway Authority in Dallas and the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority in Austin. NTTA also has impounded a handful of cars over the last 10 years.
