Fourteen separate accidents took place on the Loop all before 11:30 this morning. 
"It's a little bit higher than the other overpasses, so there's more air passing underneath it. It's curved and I think the conditions were perfect at that point just to cause the first wreck and then like I said, people just kept coming up on it and weren't able to stop in time. So it caused more and more cares to become involved," Lt. Greg Goettsch with the Abilene Fire Department said.
The frigid temperature and freezing rain created dangerous driving conditions leaving a thick layer of ice all along Loop 322. The road conditions resulted in vehicle after vehicle to slide off the road.
"Just because the original wreck only involved two, but then you had others come up on it and at the last second and hit their breaks or then swerve, so they'd go spinning and hit somebody else and then there were cars all over the place," Lt. Greg Goettsch added.
The Abilene Fire and Police Departments were swamped with calls creating some confusion.
"The Police Department had a hrd time diverting traffic off of that overpass and the emergency medical crews needed that traffic stopped on the overpass so that they could get people out of the vehicles and transported to a hospital," Lt. Greg Goettsch said.
Loop 322 was closed for nearly three hours which allowed sand trucks to do their job, helping prevent any additional accidents.
"It's a little bit higher than the other overpasses, so there's more air passing underneath it. It's curved and I think the conditions were perfect at that point just to cause the first wreck and then like I said, people just kept coming up on it and weren't able to stop in time. So it caused more and more cares to become involved," Lt. Greg Goettsch with the Abilene Fire Department said.
The frigid temperature and freezing rain created dangerous driving conditions leaving a thick layer of ice all along Loop 322. The road conditions resulted in vehicle after vehicle to slide off the road.
"Just because the original wreck only involved two, but then you had others come up on it and at the last second and hit their breaks or then swerve, so they'd go spinning and hit somebody else and then there were cars all over the place," Lt. Greg Goettsch added.
The Abilene Fire and Police Departments were swamped with calls creating some confusion.
"The Police Department had a hrd time diverting traffic off of that overpass and the emergency medical crews needed that traffic stopped on the overpass so that they could get people out of the vehicles and transported to a hospital," Lt. Greg Goettsch said.
Loop 322 was closed for nearly three hours which allowed sand trucks to do their job, helping prevent any additional accidents.
