A windstorm in south-central Illinois kicked up clouds of dust off farm fields Monday, blinding drivers, causing numerous crashes and killing at least six people on Interstate 55, police said.
The crashes occurred late in the morning and involved 40 to 60 passenger cars and multiple tractor-trailers, two of which caught fire, Illinois State Police Maj. Ryan Starrick said. The highway was shut down in both directions in Montgomery County, about 120 kilometres north of St. Louis.
Starrick, who confirmed the fatalities, told reporters that it was a spring version of a “whiteout situation” typically seen in winter snowstorms.
“The cause of the crashes is due to excessive winds blowing dirt from farm fields across the highway, leading to zero visibility,” Starrick said at a news conference.
He said more than 30 people were transported to hospitals with injuries following the crashes, which occurred in both the southbound and northbound lanes.
Winds at the time were gusting between 55 and 75 km/h, the U.S. National Weather Service said.
“It’s very flat, very few trees,” meteorologist Chuck Schaffer said. “It’s been very dry across this area really for the last three weeks. The farmers are out there tilling their fields and planting. The top layer of soil is quite loose.”
Starrick said such blinding dust storms have happened before on Illinois roads “where unfortunately you have excessively high winds” that blow the topsoil from fields. Farmers are currently busy planting fields across Illinois and the Midwest region.
Evan Anderson, 25, who was returning home to St. Louis from Chicago, said a tractor-trailer turned before striking his vehicle, sparing him from even more damage.
“You couldn’t even see,” Anderson said. “People try to slow down and other people didn’t, and I just got plowed into. There was just so many cars and semi trucks with so much momentum behind them.”
Kevin Schott, director of emergency services in Montgomery County, said it was a “very difficult scene” that’s “very hard to train for.”
“We had to search every vehicle, whether they were involved in the accident or just pulled over, to check for injuries,” he said. “People were “upset — visibly so, understandably so.”
Authorities set up staging areas away from the crash site to help travellers reunite with friends and family.
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