PLAINFIELD, WI (WSAU) — A dust storm was to blame for a handful of accidents involving nearly three dozen vehicles on Interstate 39 south of Stevens Point on Sunday.
Highway patrol officials say low visibility caused by strong wind gusts pickup up dust from nearby fields caused a 26-car crash that plugged up the southbound lanes near Plainfield at around 1 PM Sunday. At around the same time, four separate crashes in the northbound lane were also reported. Eight vehicles were involved in those incidents.
State Patrol officials say there were several injuries reported, none of which are considered life-threatening.
The volume of crashes caused officials to shut down both lanes, re-routing traffic to County Roads D and BB then to Highway 73 and back to US 51/I 39.
The closure lasted into Sunday evening as troopers considered the stretch of road to be dangerous due to the low visibility caused by the mini dust storm.
