And chain injury where more than 70 vehicles were involved, leaving six dead and more than thirty injured in the United States. The cause of the accident was a sandstorm On Monday, visibility was reduced to near zero on the highways connecting the cities of St. Louis and Chicago, in the state of Illinois.
Scopes are caused by two tractor-trailers catching fire and one of them exploding. When the emergency services arrived they found a dense cloud of dust and smoke that warned about its devastation.
The interstate, in the west of the country, was closed to traffic in both directions for about 30 kilometers due to the remaining vehicles that were still in place on Tuesday. Dozens of cars were piled on top of each other or shoulder to shoulder. According to the authorities, 30 industrial vehicles and between 40 and 60 passenger cars were affected. Witnesses reported that the scenario was similar to a “war” zone. “We were looking at dead bodies or injured bodies on the side of the road,” a woman who was in the accident explained to ABC7 television. One of the dead is an 88-year-old woman, Illinois Police reported. While among the injured, who were taken to the hospital, some in critical condition, there are several minors, one of them 2 years old.
The lost wind that reached 74 kilometers per hour raised a big cloud of dust that provoked a series of collisions. There was Poor visibility He also did hard cleaning work for several hours. “There were several vehicles involved, some on fire,” explained the director of the Montgomery County Emergency Management Agency. Kevin Schott. “So we had to put out the car fires before we started searching every car for the victims to get them out of there quickly and to the hospital,” Schott said.
The drought of the past three weeks in the area coincides with the growing season, according to the National Weather Service (NWS). This forced farmers to plow the land recently, which leaves loose soil on the surface. Also, the area is flat and treeless. Published by NWS sand storm warning and called it “dangerous and possibly deadly” driving on the highways because he expected “severely limited” visibility.
Although this type of accident is usually common in the State, Monday’s chain shock was one of the most devastating in the last decade in the country. In 2021, seven people died after the collision of twenty cars also caused by a dust blizzard.
