This Day in History – November 29th

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Maire Birdwell, Design Editor

On this day in 1991, a massive dust storm riled up Coalinga, California the day after Thanksgiving. There was a lot of traffic that day, so the dust caused many pileups and accidents.

Interstate 5 is a road that runs from the South of California to the North of California. That day, the worst part of the traffic happened to be on a prairie farmland. Many farmers were not planting anything in 1991 since there was a severe drought, so there were long piles of dust that had built up close to Interstate 5.

On the day after Thanksgiving, gusts of winds averaging 40 mph all over California, which made dust scamper over the roads and interstates, blinding to drivers. With all of the dust and the blind driving, a chain reaction of accidents happened all throughout on Interstate 5. One massive collision included 104 vehicles, 11 large trucks, and caused damage to the road itself. 17 people lost their lives and 150 more suffered from minor to severe injuries. Of course, due to the massive collisions, many other cars were stuck in traffic for nearly a whole day due to the accidents from the dust.