It is still not clear how many were injured in the incident.
At least six people died on Friday after a dust storm caused a pile-up of 21 vehicles in Montana, United States.
According to CNN, strong winds whipped up the dust and left drivers with “zero visibility” before the horrifying crash. Jose Strickland witnessed the pileup. He told the outlet that even he skidded to a stop when the pileup occurred just in front of him on Interstate 90 in Big Horn County, Montana.
Separately, sharing a video of crashed vehicles on Facebook, he wrote, “Visibility dropped in an instant. I still can’t get over the fact that we were 1 truck away from disaster.”
It is still not clear how many were injured in the incident, however, a highway patrol official informed that extra ambulances had to be called in from another city to help.
In the clip shared by Mr Strickland, cars could be seen crashed into a grassy ditch off the highway while emergency services attended the scene.
Jay Nelson from Montana’s Highway Patrol said that there were heavy winds, which caused a dust storm with zero visibility. Greg Gianforte, the governor of Montana, also said that he was “deeply saddened” by the news of the “mass casualty crash”.
I’m deeply saddened by the news of a mass casualty crash near Hardin. Please join me in prayer to lift up the victims and their loved ones. We’re grateful to our first responders for their service.
— Governor Greg Gianforte (@GovGianforte) July 16, 2022
Speaking to CNN, an eyewitness, identified as Ariel Dehart, said that she saw a camper van ripped open in the pile-up while driving westbound I-90 near Hardin. “The visibility was so poor and scary,” she said, adding that the warm air was “eerie”. “It was like wearing sepia-coloured glassed. It was so crazy,” Ms Dehart told the outlet.
Following the incident, interstate travel was detoured, but I-90 has since been reopened. Visibility reportedly dropped to less than 400 metres in the bad weather condition on Friday.