Photo by Chris L
Caden Nowicki was five months from walking across the graduation stage at Ponder High School. The 18-year-old varsity football player spent the evening of January 25, 2026, doing what thousands of North Texas teenagers were doing after a rare winter storm dropped several inches of snow across the region: looking for a way to sled on streets that almost never see it.
By the end of that night, Nowicki was in critical condition at Medical City Denton. Five days later, on January 30, he was dead. The Texas Department of Public Safety confirmed his death, making him the third teenager killed in a sledding-related crash in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex during the same storm.
What Happened in Ponder
According to KERA News, Nowicki was riding in a kayak being towed behind a vehicle on an icy road when he lost control and struck a fence. The impact caused severe head injuries. He was transported to Medical City Denton, where he remained in critical condition until his death.
The setup was common that week across the region. With no hills and no sleds, North Texans improvised: pickup trucks became tow vehicles, and kayaks, storage-bin lids, and even inflatable pools became sleds. What made these rides lethal was the combination of speed, zero steering or braking on the improvised sled, and fixed obstacles at the road’s edge.
The Frisco Crash
Days before Nowicki’s accident, two 16-year-old girls in Frisco died after the makeshift sled they were riding, also towed by a vehicle, left the roadway. CBS News Texas reported that the girls were thrown into a frozen pond. Elizabeth Angle, a sophomore at Wakeland High School, was killed. The second girl also died from injuries sustained in the crash.
The circumstances were nearly identical to what would happen in Ponder: a vehicle providing the tow, a sled with no way to steer or stop, and a frozen surface hiding a hazard. In Frisco, the hazard was a pond beneath thin ice. In Ponder, it was a roadside fence.
Who Caden Nowicki Was
Nowicki played on Ponder’s varsity football team and was on track to graduate with the Class of 2026. After his hospitalization, the Ponder football community organized prayer vigils and meal trains for his family. When he died, teammates posted tributes on social media, many of them simple: a sideline photo, a jersey number, a few words about a friend who would not be finishing the season or the school year with them.
Ponder ISD acknowledged Nowicki’s death and offered counseling resources to students and staff, according to KERA’s reporting.
Why Improvised Sledding Behind Vehicles Is So Dangerous
North Texas averages measurable snowfall only a handful of times per decade, according to the National Weather Service’s Fort Worth office. When a significant storm does hit, most households do not own sleds, helmets, or other winter recreation equipment. The impulse to improvise is predictable, but the risks are severe.
A kayak or plastic bin towed behind a vehicle has no brakes, no steering mechanism, and no restraint system. If the tow line goes slack, snaps, or the sled catches an edge, the rider becomes an uncontrolled projectile headed toward whatever is at the road’s margin. Fences, curbs, utility poles, drainage ditches, and bodies of water have all been factors in towing-related injuries nationwide.
Texas Transportation Code Section 545.409 prohibits a vehicle on a roadway from towing a person on skis, a sled, or a toy vehicle, a provision that applies regardless of weather conditions. Despite that statute, enforcement during a rare snow event is difficult, and many residents may not know the law exists.
As of March 2026, no criminal charges had been publicly announced in connection with either the Ponder or Frisco crashes. Authorities have not publicly identified the drivers involved in either incident.
Three Deaths, One Week, One Storm
Three teenagers dead from the same type of activity during the same storm has forced a reckoning in North Texas that goes beyond any single family’s grief. Schools in Ponder and Frisco held moments of silence. Parents circulated warnings on local social media groups. Local news coverage pivoted from snow-day novelty to something far grimmer.
For the families of Caden Nowicki and Elizabeth Angle, none of that coverage changes what January 2026 took from them. Nowicki’s cap and gown will go unworn. Angle’s sophomore year ended at 16. The snow melted within days. The losses will not.
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