Sudden Dust Storm Leads To Deadly 10-vehicle Pileup In Oklahoma

IN FILE - A dust storm moves across North Indian Canyon Road on Dec. 30, 2022 north of Palm Springs, California. On US Highway 54 in the Oklahoma Panhandle, a 10-vehicle collision brought on by strong winds on Tuesday resulted in the death of a driver. RJ SANGOSTI/GETTY IMAGES

Powerful winds kicked up a sudden and dangerous swirling dust storm Tuesday, causing a 10-vehicle pileup that killed a driver on US Highway 54 in the Oklahoma Panhandle.

The blowing dirt and dust became so thick that officials said it rapidly reduced visibility to “near-zero conditions” for motorists near Goodwell, about an hour north of Amarillo, Texas. The Oklahoma Highway Patrol said the chain-reaction crash occurred around 11:30 a.m. local time when a car struck a vehicle that had stopped on the highway due to an earlier accident. That second crash, in turn, caused several collisions involving five tractor-trailer trucks and five cars that were unable to stop in time, police said.