UPDATE: January 28, 2026
Family confirms 16‑year‑old Grace Brito, died Tuesday night, after being on life support since Sunday following a sledding incident that killed her best friend, Elizabeth Angle according to CBS News affiliate KTVT in Dallas.
Brito’s mom said her daughter was an All‑Star cheer competitor at Express Cheer in Frisco and had just gotten her driver’s license. Her family said she was “a kind and generous soul, full of love, affection, and warmth,” according to People Magazine.
ORIGINAL STORY:
On makeshift “sleds” — a mattress, a folding chair, an upside-down table, a canoe — people shriek and laugh as they careen around corners and pick up speed, propelled by the moving vehicles in front of them. Videos of teens and young adults, giddy at the rare snowfall and ice-covered roads, were all over Instagram and TikTok feeds this weekend as Texans took part in a dangerous sledding trend that has left one dead already.
The winter storm that swept across the U.S. over the last few days claimed at least 13 lives as of Monday morning, according to USA Today. While many of those deaths are attributed to hypothermic conditions and exposure to freezing temperatures, others have stemmed from the icy roads, which can be incredibly dangerous for vehicles to navigate. A 20-car pileup on I-10 near San Antonio left one person dead on Saturday night, according to the San Antonio Express-News.
Then there were the sledding accidents.
On Sunday, two 16-year-old girls in Frisco were sledding behind a Jeep when their sled hit a curb and the girls crashed into a tree, according to WFAA. Police responded after the crash and found both 16-year-old girls with “life-threatening injuries,” according to a press release from the Frisco government office.
One girl died at the hospital and the other remains in critical condition. The driver of the Jeep, a 16-year-old boy, listed no injuries, WFAA reported.
“There were sirens, you usually don’t hear them, and they sounded very close,” one neighborhood resident told WFAA. “Prayers to the families and whatever may have happened. It’s a very sad situation.”
The Frisco sledding crash was not an isolated incident. It follows a slew of videos online of “truck sledding,” dragging a person behind a vehicle on icy roads. And other fatalities have been reported, too — a 17-year-old boy in Arkansas was being pulled by an ATV when he struck a tree, USA Today reported. Despite the emergency responders’ aid, he died from his injuries.
Searches of the terms “truck sledding,” and “car sledding,” online produce a plethora of videos of people following the same trend, often with thousands of likes.
“This is your sign to tie a sled to the back of your friends car while they drift,” one video with over 45,000 likes is captioned. In it, two men on sleds are sent sliding across a parking lot repeatedly as the car they’re holding on to takes sharp turns. Another video, showing people sledding on a table tied to a Jeep, has nearly 200,000 likes.
One Texas woman posted a video to Instagram of three people piled onto a mattress, sledding along behind a car at high speeds.
“My 20-year-old daughter sends this video of her sledding on a MATTRESS in Waco, and I’m feeling TERRIFIED as a parent,” the Instagram user wrote. “At the same time, my inner 20-year-old college-girl-self is screaming “YASSS!”
Another post shows a truck pulling a person behind it on a chair by a rope, while yet another person “sleds” behind the chair, sitting on the icy ground. “Sledding in Texas,” the video is captioned. A Fort Worth pub also took part in the trend, posting a video from the perspective of someone in a canoe sledding on the ice behind a truck.
After the tragic sledding incident on Sunday, the Frisco government office urged people to remain indoors and not take risks on the icy roads.
“Please keep in mind that snow and ice can create extremely slippery surfaces and lead to serious or even deadly accidents,” the Frisco Public Information Office wrote in a statement online. “Please stay alert, stay indoors when possible, and avoid any unnecessary outdoor activity until conditions improve.”
Other officials have followed suit, reminding Texans to exercise caution and stay off the roads if possible.
The Texas Department of Transportation’s highway conditions map shows ice and snow collected on roadways in most areas north of San Antonio Monday morning. TxDOT discourages traveling in vehicles on many such roads, urging reduced speed and caution on ice.
FOX 4 traffic anchor Chip Waggoner reported several crashes and road closures in the Dallas-Fort Worth area Monday morning, including ramp closures, a stuck 18 wheeler, and vehicles skidding off of highways.
“Current conditions still dangerous on highways. Crews are already out monitoring overpasses,” Waggoner wrote on X. “Side streets are even more treacherous. Continue to hunker down if possible.”
The Texas Department of Public Safety reminded individuals to drive slowly on icy roads and leave room between vehicles on their website.