Eli Elza

Media Writing
Hard News Story
May 5, 2023

Six dead after dust storm causes pileups in Illinois

ILLINOIS May 2, 2023 - Interstate 55 reopens a day after multiple car crashes killed
seven people and injured at least 37 others.

The crashes happened shortly before 11 a.m. on Monday on a two-mile stretch of Interstate 55
near Farmersville, Ill., after dust from nearby plowed fields covered the highway. The wrecks
were in both north and southbound lanes.

Illinois State Police reported that 72 vehicles, both passenger and commercial, were involved in
the crashes, including two tractor-trailers that caught fire.

The authorities reported that 37 people were hospitalized with injuries ranging from minor to
life-threatening. Those injured were between 2 and 80 years old.

One of those killed in the wrecks was Shirley Harper, 88 years old, of Franklin, Wisconsin.
Officials are still working to identify the others killed and notify their families.

First responders had a difficult time responding to the scene due to the dust, according to Kevin
Schott, the director of Montgomery County’s Emergency Management Agency. “This is a
difficult scene, something that is very hard to train for, something that we really haven’t
experienced locally,” he said.

“The cause of the crash is due to excessive winds blowing dirt from farm fields across the
highway leading to zero visibility,” Illinois State Police said in a news release.

The dust storm came on rapidly and created conditions similar to a snowstorm whiteout,
reducing visibility greatly.

Dust storms are most common in the Southwest, according to the National Weather Service, and
they rarely occur in central Illinois.

However, a dry spell combined with strong winds created Monday’s conditions. The Springfield
airport, located about 30 miles north of the crash site, recorded just half of its usual rainfall for
April. They also reported that winds were blowing up to 40 miles per hour on Monday.

Nick Gorman, 22 years old, who works in Farmersville, said he had seen a “huge cloud of dust”
late Monday morning that obscured his view for miles. “August is whenever it’s really dusty,”
Gorman said. “It was kind of odd for this time of year.”
Sources:
https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/01/us/illinois-dust-storm-crashes/index.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/01/us/dust-storm-illinois-i55-crash.html