Dust Storm Causes Deadly Accident in Jerome County

Storms are coming through, which means you need to be extra careful behind the wheel. A dust storm just caused a fatal accident in Jerome County. 

52-year-old Douglas Megargle of Jerome was killed while he was driving his GMC Sierra pick-up truck and he slowed down because of lack of visibility due to the dust storm. The chain reaction involved four semi-trucks and two other smaller vehicles in Hazelton, Idaho yesterday afternoon.

Idaho State Police say heavy winds and rain that completely covered the westbound lanes of I-84 contributed to the crash.

Your natural reaction when you can't see is to hit those brakes and slow down, but it proved to be deadly in this situation.

According to an article on KTVB, a Mack Truck driven by 58-year-old Filimon B. Miranda of Twin Falls crashed into Megargle's stopped pick-up at 2:47 p.m. That impact caused Douglas' truck to spin out and then hit one of the stopped semi's. That crashed pushed the semi off the road through a fence and into another semi.

To make matters worse, 72-year-old Wilma L. Benefiel of Mesa, Arizona failed to stop and she crashed into Megargle's truck as well. The 58-year-old died at the scene of the crash. His passenger, 60-year-old Sally Rose of Jerome was seriously injured in the accident and had to ultimately be life-flighted to Portneuf Medical Center in Pocatello.

Luckily, everyone involved in this pile-up was wearing a seatbelt, but there were other injuries and the conditions of 31-year-old Kyle Hoskins of Jerome and Filimon Miranda are unknown.

Please keep all of these people and their loved ones in your thoughts and prayers and let this be a good reminder that as we approach the "100 Deadly Days of Summer" you need to be extra careful behind the wheel. I don't if there is anything that could have been done differently in this situation and they were all buckled up, but continue to use your defensive driving skills and let's try to keep the roads as safe as possible.