‘This was a very rare and catastrophic event for the state:’ NWS, ISP reflect on deadly I-55 dust storm crash one year later

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Ill. (WCIA) – When drivers traveled on I-55 south of Springfield on May 1, 2023, they faced more than just typical traffic: a wall of dust blanketed the highway.

“In my experience, I have seen certain instances such as this,” said Ryan Starrick, Illinois State Police (ISP) southern region command major. “That would have had to have been with winter weather.”

Strong winds blew dirt from nearby farm fields creating zero visibility for drivers. The dust storm resulted in an 84-vehicle pile up that killed eight people .

For nearly a day, the interstate was shut down in both directions as emergency crews worked to clear the wreckage.

“That was something that I haven’t experienced to that magnitude, but have we had to close the road due to dust storms or multi-vehicle crashes, yes, but to the magnitude of May 1, that was something different that day.” Starrick said.

It was the first time the National Weather Service (NWS) issued a dust storm warning east of the Mississippi River.

“This was a very rare and catastrophic event for the state,” Mike Albano, a staff meteorologist at the NWS, said.

And Albano said issuing that kind of warning isn’t always easy.

“A lot of times it’s a reactive warning rather than a proactive warning,” Albano said. “With severe weather, we try and be proactive. We do try and get that lead time but a lot of times we hear about these dust storm events, whether it’s road closures, reduced visibility, we’ll hear about them first from law enforcement and/or emergency managers.”

Starrick said ISP was prepared to handle the dust storm crash. A year later, he said there haven’t been any specific changes to how they would respond in the future because weather events like dust storms can be difficult to foresee.

But Starrick said ISP has met with other law enforcement agencies and fire departments to talk about ways to improve.

“They would respond, we would respond appropriately to perform life saving measures whether that would be to close the road immediately or to handle someone’s injuries, things of that nature,” Starrick said.

And if a dust storm of this scale happens again, Starrick said the big concern is about safety for drivers.

“We would still respond as appropriate, evaluate the situation, provide analysis and if it’s appropriate for us to close the road in certain areas, then that’s what ISP will definitely do to keep people safe,” Starrick said.

Just last month, Central Illinois saw another dust storm, this time on I-72 in Sangamon County , but the visibility conditions weren’t as bad as the one on May 1, 2023.

Central Illinois also hasn’t seen many dust storms , but before the one that happened last year, there were some other severe ones including May 6, 1983, June 3, 1990 and May 17, 2017.

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