Six people are dead, including two children, after a dust storm on Interstate 90 in Montana led to a pileup last Friday afternoon.
The storm caused blackout conditions,The Associated Pressreported Saturday. According to Montana Highway Patrol Sgt. Jay Nelson, investigators have not found any other factors contributing to the tragic accident.
“Everything is indicative of an isolated extreme weather event,” Nelson said, according to the outlet. “What could people do? It really was just panic.”
The Montana Highway Patrol did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
Citing authorities, the Associated Press said the crash involved 21 vehicles, including six commercial semi-trucks and was reported around 4:30 p.m. The vehicles lost control amid the storm which resulted from gusts reaching 60 mph.
Nelson told the outlet that there was zero visibility for a mile stretch of the highway.
Amy Lynn Nelson/The Billings Gazette via AP
In addition to those killed, the crash sent eight others to the hospital with injuries, the AP said. The identities of the victims, and the condition of those who survived, had not yet been released as of Saturday’s reporting.
Jose Strickland, who according toTODAY, was “team-driving” a rig with his father, Raul Joseph Beger, caught the aftermath of the accident on camera.
“Visibility dropped in an instant, and we found ourselves skidding to a stop and everyone scrambling off the road to safety,” Strickland wrote alongside a nearly two minute long video of the aftermath posted toFacebook. “My heart goes out to the families affected.”
“Today I helped save a mans life and lost another before we could get him some help. In total there were about 7-8 fatalities in what was about a 20 car pileup,” the caption continued. “I still can’t get over the fact that we were 1 truck away from disaster. For whatever reason my Dad Raul Joseph Beger decided to take the wheel after lunch and to say the least I’m glad his experience came into play.”
Fatal pileup on Interstate 90.Amy Lynn Nelson/The Billings Gazette via AP
The video shows some of the destruction that resulted from the storm including a van that appeared to have crashed into a large semi-truck. Later in the video he shows two other vehicles involved in a collision in which the back vehicle’s front is completely destroyed.
Montana highway pileup.Amy Lynn Nelson/The Billings Gazette via AP
“It was a chain reaction,” Strickland said. “There was no alert.”
Knudsen wrote, “We will release more information as it becomes available and is appropriate out of respect of the lives lost and their loved ones.”
source: people.com
