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Farmer says high winds and dry fields contributed to central Illinois dust storm
A central Illinois farmer says a combination of uncontrollable factors caused Monday’s dust storm that resulted in a fatal accident on Interstate 55.
“It was just the wrong timing. Strong winds, low humidity and crusted dry fields.”
Travis Rovey grows corn and soybeans in the area of the accident and tells Brownfield there wasn’t much fieldwork being done.
“Those fields had been planted for at least 10 days so there were very minimal tractors operating in that general area yesterday.”
There have been posts on social media asking if better soil health practices could have made a difference, but Rovey says, “It really didn’t matter what tillage practice it was, we had dust blowing from minimal tilled fields all the way to the conventional fields. There really was no rhyme or reason as to where the dust was coming from.”
Rovey says wind gusts were upwards of 50 miles per hour and the dust was as thick inside of his house as it was outside.
Illinois State Police reports the dust storm eliminated visibility in the area causing multiple accidents on I-55 involving 72 vehicles that injured 37 people and claimed the lives of 6.
UH sorry, but tillage practice absolutely makes a difference. 95% of that dust was coming off of field after field that had excessive tillage done to it. There is simply not enough crop residue left on the surface of enough fields in that area to hold the soil in place.