BOZEMAN — On Jan. 7, a woman from Salt Lake City and three other passengers were on their way home from Billings in icy road conditions. That’s when they were caught in a deadly pile-up on Cardwell Hill.
“I looked down and I noticed my finger was gone,” said Adele Beck.
Beck was visiting Billings with some friends driving on I-90, a route she’d taken plenty of times.
But on the 7th of January, Adele faced a surprising event on her commute back to Utah once she reached Cardwell Hill.
“I could see up ahead that a semi had jackknifed across the road,” she said.
Because of icy conditions, Adele says she was only traveling at about 30 miles per hour. She was able to come to a stop, just barely hitting the semi.
“I said to my passengers, ‘Is everybody okay?’,” said Adele.
Just a second later, Adele’s vehicle was hit from behind by another driver.
“We were hit so hard that we were shoved underneath the semi,” said Adele.
A feeling that she struggles to even describe.
“I just don’t have words for it—just this jumble of noise, chaos, and mess,” said Adele.