A massive pile-up involving 72 vehicles took place in Farmersville, Illinois, on Monday morning, leaving six people killed and 37 injured.
The incident occurred at 10:55 a.m. on the northbound lanes of Interstate 55, Major Ryan Starrick of the Illinois State Police said, per Fox News.
“The cause of the crashes is due to excessive winds blowing dirt from farm fields across the highway, leading to zero visibility,” Starrick explained.
It is estimated that wind gusts that morning were between 35 mph and 45 mph. The site of the accident spanned across two miles of highway, from milepost 76 to milepost 78.
I-55 was closed up until 6 a.m. the following day, per USA Today. It was once again closed later that afternoon due to more dust storm warnings, per Fox 2.
The names of the six victims have not been released apart from one, Shirley Harper, an 88-year-old resident of Franklin, Wisconsin. Two fatalities remain unidentified by police.
During a press conference on May 2, Brendan Kelly, director of the Illinois State Police, asked the public for help identifying a person driving a blue Chrysler 300 and another driving a Hyundai of an unknown color, per USA Today.
Those injured in the crash are reportedly between the ages of 2 to 80. They were taken to nearby hospitals for treatment of injuries ranging from minor to critical in terms of severity.
Kelly explained to reporters that the meteorological conditions behind the crash came as a surprise to those living in the area.
“They were very unusual circumstances. Certainly dust storms happen, but it is not something that happens every day here in this part of Illinois or any part of Illinois,” Kelly said, per USA Today.
Dust storms most commonly occur in the Desert Southwest, per The Washington Post.
Historically, the worst dust storms were seen during the Dust Bowl crisis affecting the Texas panhandle and Oklahoma, as well as parts of Colorado, New Mexico, and Kansas, between 1935 and 1938.
The storms are caused by the outflow of a thunderstorm, which refers to the rain-cooled air that surges ahead of it. This outflow can kick up dust and form dense clouds in mere seconds, rendering visibility on roads close to nil from one moment to the next.
The American Meteorological Society logged 232 deaths caused by dust storms nationwide between 2007 and 2017, per The Washington Post.
The massive pile-up in Illinois was described as a “very difficult scene” by first responders, per Fox News.
“We had to search every vehicle, whether they were involved in the accident or just pulled over, to check for injuries,” Kevin Schott, director of Montgomery County’s Emergency Management Agency, said, per Fox News.
At least two of the tractor-trailers involved in the crash caught fire.
Dust storm warnings have been issued for parts of Central Illinois, and as of the afternoon of May 2, there had been no accidents reported in relation to the meteorological conditions.
