The video begins with shaky iPhone footage from a sidewalk at the base of a steep hill. Snow lines the edges of the road, and a thin, nearly invisible layer of ice reflects the streetlights. Cars are stopped at a red light at the intersection below, exhaust rising into the cold air.
The person filming mutters about how slick the hill looks.
Then headlights appear at the top.
A sedan begins descending — slowly at first — but it’s clear almost immediately that something isn’t right. The vehicle isn’t rolling smoothly. It’s picking up speed faster than it should.
The filmer zooms in slightly.
The brake lights flash.
But the car doesn’t slow down.
Instead, it starts drifting slightly to the right. The tires aren’t gripping — they’re gliding. The engine revs faintly as the driver attempts to regain control, but gravity and ice are doing the steering now.
Halfway down the hill, the sedan fishtails.
It swerves left.
Then right.
People standing near the intersection begin to notice. One person steps backward from the curb. Another points.
The red light is still holding traffic in place.
At the bottom of the hill, three vehicles are stopped bumper-to-bumper, completely unaware of how little time they have to react.
The descending car clips the curb hard.
That’s when everything changes.
The impact with the curb acts like a ramp. The front of the sedan jolts upward violently, lifting off the pavement for a split second. Snow and ice spray outward as the car becomes partially airborne.
The camera shakes as the filmer gasps.
The sedan slams forward directly into the line of stopped vehicles. The first impact sends a jolt through the row — metal crunching, bumpers collapsing inward. The force pushes the first car into the second, and then into the third in a chain reaction.
A loud crack echoes through the cold air.
Airbags deploy in at least one vehicle. White smoke bursts inside the cabins. Horns begin blaring continuously.
For a moment, there is stunned silence — except for the hiss of engines and the sound of something leaking onto the pavement.
The light turns green, but no one moves.
The driver of the speeding sedan sits still for a few seconds before the door slowly opens. They step out shakily, looking at the damage with hands on their head.
Drivers from the struck vehicles emerge cautiously, checking on one another. Someone shouts, “Is everyone okay?”
Bystanders rush forward from the sidewalk. One person is already dialing emergency services.
The filmer pans across the scene: crumpled hoods, shattered headlights scattered across the icy road, steam rising into the freezing air. What was a routine red light stop has turned into a chaotic pileup in less than ten seconds.
Distant sirens begin to echo from down the street.
The final shot lingers on the hill — still icy, still dangerous — as snow continues to fall lightly, covering the skid marks that tell the story of how quickly control can disappear.
All it took was one downhill slide.
