Seven-decades Of Roadway Fatalities Caused by Windblown Dust Events in the United States

Abstract

Windblown dust events, including dust storms, haboobs, and dust devils, pose a significant danger to vehicles and their drivers. Despite these hazards, such events receive far less coverage than severe weather conditions like thunderstorms or tornadoes. These natural phenomena cause low visibility and reduce road surface traction, leading to vehicle crashes. Windblown events often claim more lives than some well-known extreme weather phenomena like winter storms and hurricanes. However, due to their locality and seemingly low hazard perception, the number of fatalities and injuries caused by windblown dust have not been systematically studied.

This study developed a new dataset by merging data from the NOAA Storm Data Events Database(SED) and the Department of Transportation Fatality Analysis Reporting System(FARS),  following the same method developed by Tong et al. (2023). This combined approach aims to quantify and analyze the fatalities associated with these events from 1950 to 2024, providing a more accurate and comprehensive understanding of their impact. The most important conclusion achieved by this study is the establishment of a reliable method for tracking and analyzing dust storm-related fatalities, providing important data that helps raise awareness about the dangers of dust storms in the US.