An old video of multi-vehicle crash from Texas is being widely circulated on social media platforms falsely claiming that it shows a major accident that recently took place in Buffalo City, New York.
BOOM found that the visuals are from February 2021 and shows an accident which happened on Interstate 35W highway in Texas after an overnight winter storm hit the area.
People in United States are currently battling harsh winter storms, which have disrupted transportation across the country. As per reports, the ice storms have affected nearly 250 million Americans and Canadians causing power outages and frequent flight cancellations. The sub zero temperatures in the last few days have taken a steep drop freezing several places across the US.
The video shows visuals of a massive car pileup .The video has been captioned as, "Very Bad accident Iin New York / Baffalo, where more than 50 people died on spot. America...."
Click here to view the post.
We also received the same video on our WhatsApp tipline number (7700906588) with a verification request.
Fact Check
BOOM performed a reverse image search on one of the keyframes from the viral video and found an Italian news report dated February 12, 2021, carrying visuals of the same accident. According to the news report, the incident is from Texas happened in February 2021.
Taking a cue, we ran a related keyword search and come across several news bulletins from American outlets reporting about the accident.
ABC News, TODAY, CNBC Television aired the same visuals of the Fed-X truck and the multi car pileup in their news bulletins from February 12, 2021. One of those reports can be seen below.
The reports mentioned that the accident involving 130 vehicles claimed six lives. A comparison between the visuals aired in news bulletins and the scenes from the viral video can be seen below.
A CNN article from February 11, 2021, reports, "A 133-car pileup on Interstate 35 West in Fort Worth on Thursday left at least six people dead, according to Fort Worth Police Chief Neil Noakes. The incident was one of several reported in the Dallas-Fort Worth and Austin areas during dicey weather conditions Thursday that included freezing rain and accumulating ice."
Reactions from Fort Worth officials about the multi-vehicle crash on Interstate 35W can be heard on The Dallas Morning News' official YouTube channel.
