Illinois highway reopens after dust storm that killed six

An interstate highway in Illinois reopened Tuesday after a windstorm kicked up clouds of dust from farm fields, causing zero visibility and sparking crashes that killed at least six people and injured dozens more, police said.

More than 70 vehicles, including dozens of commercial vehicles and passenger cars, were involved in crashes Monday morning along a 2-mile stretch of Interstate 55 in Montgomery County, 75 miles (120 kilometers) to the north of St.Louis. The highway was closed in both directions after the crashes, but the northbound and southbound lanes reopened around 6 a.m. Tuesday, Illinois State Police said.

The accidents involved between 40 and 60 cars, along with tractor-trailers, two of which caught fire, Maj. Ryan Starrick said. The six people who died were all in the northbound lanes, while 37 people on both sides of I-55 were taken to hospitals.

Those injured in the crash range in age from 2 to 80 years old and have injuries ranging from minor to life-threatening, police said. One of the six people killed was Shirley Harper, 88, of Franklin, Wisconsin. Efforts to identify the other five continued.

Starrick told reporters Monday’s wind-driven dust storm was a spring version of a “fade situation” typically seen in winter snowstorms. Governor JB Pritzker described the scene as “horrifying.”

“The only thing you could hear after we got hit was crash after crash after crash behind us,” said Tom Thomas, 43, who was traveling south to St. Louis.

Dairon Socarras Quintero, 32, who was driving to St. Louis to make deliveries for his Elk Grove Village-based custom framing company, said that after his truck collided with the vehicle in front of him, he got out and moved to one side of the road. , then returned after the chain reaction of shocks ended behind him.

Socarras Quintero said the dust continued to blow fiercely as he checked on other motorists and emergency crews arrived. He lifted up his backpack, covered in dust even though it was inside a closed truck cab.

Winds at the time were gusting to between 35 and 45 mph (56 and 74 kph), the National Weather Service said.

“It’s very flat, very few trees,” said meteorologist Chuck Schaffer. “It has really been very dry in this area for the last three weeks. Farmers are out there tilling their fields and planting. The topsoil is pretty loose.”

[Con información de The Associated Press]

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