20-Vehicle Pileup in Blinding Dust Storm Kills 1 Man
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TULARE, Calif. — A 20-vehicle chain-reaction pileup in a sudden blinding dust storm killed a 76-year-old Long Beach man whose car was crushed between two truck-trailer rigs, authorities said Thursday.
Eighteen other people were injured, some seriously, in the Wednesday afternoon accident.
High winds blanketed California 99 just south of Tulare with dust, reducing visibility tozero.
“The winds came up all of a sudden and with no warning to the motorists,” a California Highway Patrol officer said. “It was like turning out the lights in a room with no windows. They couldn’t see a thing.”
It took more than three hours for ambulances to remove the injured and to clear the wreckage.
The CHP said the car driven by the victim, Michael Callahan, slammed into the rear of a stopped truck-trailer rig and then was hit from behind by another rig.
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