BEAUMONT, Texas (KTRK) - Survivors are talking about a deadly Thanksgiving Day chain-reaction pileup involving more than 100 cars on a Texas highway.

"People just started screaming and running,” survivor Devin Cash told KTRK-TV Thursday. “It was just a couple of seconds, chain reaction.”

Cash’s Ford Fusion is now a crumpled mass of metal that is beyond recognition. He said he saw his life flash before his eyes in the moments leading up to -- and right after -- the crash that killed two people.

The college freshman was riding in his car with his mother, father, sister and roommate when a morning drive to Baton Rouge went terribly wrong.

Like many people involved in the crash, the family thought it might be best to stay in the car until others yelled for them to get out, but quickly changed their minds.

“As we were trying to get out a car hit us again and then after that car hit us, we jumped out and then the 18-wheeler came and hit all the cars," Cash said.

Cash’s door was jammed, so he climbed through the back seat moments before his car was reduced to a mass of metal.

The Texas Highway Patrol said dense fog in the area likely played a role in the crash.