A dust storm in the northern United States caused a huge pile-up on a highway on Monday, 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 .
Massive pileup on I-55 south of Springfield, Illinois has closed the interstate for nearly 30 miles. Blowing dust off freshly plowed fields led to very low visibility
Six people have died and, in total, "more than 30 people" have been taken to hospital, Illinois police said.
The drama unfolded Monday around 11 a.m. locally on the highway that connects the major metropolitan areas of St. Louis and Chicago. Cars collided for approximately 3 kilometers and on both sides of the roadway, 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,” police added.
The multiple pileups "are due to strong winds blowing dust from agricultural fields toward the highway, leading to zero visibility," the statement said.
In July 2021, eight people died in a pile-up caused by a sandstorm in Utah, in the west of the country.
