“Dust Storm Causes Fatal Pile-Up on Illinois Highway: At Least 6 Dead and Dozens Injured”

By Le Figaro with AFP

Published on 02/05/2023 at 02:03

A dust storm caused a huge pile-up on a highway in Illinois on Monday, in the northeastern United States, killing at least six people and injuring around 30, authorities said. Images of devastation show the smoking carcasses of dozens of vehicles, including long trucks, piled up one behind the other, other cars stopped in the grass, on the side, all in an atmosphere saturated with ocher dust . Six people died and, in total, “more than 30 people” were taken to hospital, local police said.

The drama took place Monday around 11:00 a.m. local time on the highway that connects the major cities of Saint-Louis and Chicago. Cars collided for about three kilometers and on both sides of the road, near the town of Farmersville. The injured are between 2 and 80 years old, and some of them are life-threatening. “About 30 commercial vehicles and 40 to 60 cars are involved. This includes two semi-trailer trucks that caught fire due to the accidents”added the police.

These multiple pile-ups “are due to strong winds blowing dust from the agricultural fields towards the highway, leading to zero visibility”, the statement said. In July 2021, eight people died in a pileup caused by a sandstorm in Utah, in the west of the country.