At least 18 people have died as brutal Winter Storm Fern battered the US — including two teenagers killed in tragic sledding accidents.
The first reported death was a 16-year-old girl who died when she and another girl were being towed on a sled in Texas by a 16-year-old boy driving a Jeep. The sled slammed into a curb and then collided with a tree, according to police in Frisco, just outside of Dallas.
The two girls were rushed to local hospitals where one died from her injuries and another remains in critical condition, cops said. The incident remains under investigation and no arrests have been announced.
The girl’s death was the first publicly reported death in the historic snowstorm, which impacted more than 235 million Americans, according to the Dallas Morning News.
A 17-year-old boy was killed in Arkansas in another sledding accident when he hit a tree while being pulled by an ATV when he struck a tree, officials said.
Locally, five people were found dead outside in New York City , according to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
“It is still too early to say what the cause of death was for any of the five of them,” Mamdani told reporters at a press conference Sunday. “And it seems at this moment that we do not think any of them were homeless.”
Another fatality was reported in Floral Park on Long Island where a former New York Police Department officer, 60-year-old Roger McGovern, died while shoveling out a church, News 12 reported.
In Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, three people died while removing snow, the county coroner said. The three were between 60 to 84 years old.
In Massachusetts, a 51-year-old woman was killed when she and her husband were struck by a snowplow in an MBTA parking lot, according to NBC Boston. The husband survived and is recovering in the hospital, authorities said.
Another person was found dead from hypothermia outside of an Austin, Texas gas station, officials said.
An additional three deaths were reported in Tennessee, and two in Louisiana, ABC News reported.
Rebecca Rauber, a 28-year-old elementary school teacher, was found dead in the snow on Sunday in Kansas just 300 yards from where she was last seen on Friday night after leaving a bar.
In Bangor, Maine, a private jet carrying eight people crashed during takeoff Sunday evening during the snowstorm.
The extent of injuries among those on board was not immediately clear, a source briefed on the incident told CNN.
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