DIVERNON, US, 2nd May, 2023 (WAM) — A dust storm that cut visibility to near zero on Monday triggered a series of chain-reaction crashes involving dozens of vehicles on an Illinois highway, killing six people and injuring at least two dozen others, Reuters reported.
Roughly 40 to 60 passenger cars and 30 commercial vehicles, including numerous tractor-trailer trucks, were involved in the pileup around 11 am. CT (1200 ET) on Interstate 55 in southern Illinois, state police said in a news release.
The crashes occurred on both sides of I-55 along a 2-mile stretch of the highway near the town of Farmersville, about 200 miles (320 km) southwest of Chicago, police said.
More than 30 people were transported to area hospitals with injuries ranging from minor to life-threatening, and the patients ranged in age from 2- to 80-years-old, police said.
State police said the pileups were caused by "excessive winds blowing dirt from farm fields across the highway, resulting in zero visibility."