Zero visibility caused by a blinding dust storm on Interstate 86 between Pocatello and American Falls led to multiple accidents at around 4:30 p.m. Saturday.

    Both lanes of a 12-mile stretch of the interstate were shut down until 9:45 p.m. and hundreds of motorists were stuck on either end of the crash scenes west of the Arbon Valley/Rainbow Road exit.

    Idaho State Police said they were handling 16 separate accidents from multiple accidents that occurred on the hazardous stretch of Interstate 86. The exact number of vehicles involved was unavailable. Some believed it was as many as 30.

    “There were multiple, multiple accidents,” a state police dispatcher said.

    Saturday about 9:40 p.m. the dispatcher said it would be hours before an official press release on the accidents would be released.

    Portneuf Medical Center admitted five patients from the accidents, some of whom were first treated at Power County Hospital.

    “Everybody is stable,” a spokesman for the PMC emergency room said Saturday night.

    Nine patients were treated for injuries from the interstate wrecks at Power County Hospital, according to a nurse there.

    She was unable to provide additional details about the extent of those injuries.

    Photos sent to the Journal by motorists at the scene showed dozens of emergency vehicles at at least one person being transported by stretcher to an awaiting ambulance. A massive wall of dust partially obscured lines of vehicles in both lanes that included numerous tractor trailers, including a car-carrier.

    As traffic backed up on either side of the closed stretch of I-86, the Bannock Peak Truck Stop and Casino near the Arbon exit became crowded.

    Husband-and-wife truck driving team Peter and Amanda Biggs of Saskatchewan, Canada, passed the time playing cards in the sleeper cab of their rig. They transport fruit between Canada and California when the storm stopped their progress.

    “Coming from Canada, we’ve been stopped by a lot of snowstorms, but this is the first dust storm,” Amanda Biggs said.

    Trucker Rich Cone of Paul was also stranded with a load of potatoes on its way from Ashton to Burley. He is a driver for J&W Trucking Company.

    “I’ve lived in Idaho 30 years and this is the first time I’ve been stranded by wind in Arbon Valley,” Cone said.

    With a casino packed with stranded travelers, Bannock Peak clerk Monty Moon said it was an unusual Saturday.

    “Saturdays are usually busy, but definitely not like this,” Moon said as he waited on a throng of customers. “It’s not like this normally. That’s for sure.”

    On the western side of the closure, stranded motorists were directed to American Falls High School.

    Students from Pocatello, Highland, Malad, New Horizons, North Gem and Bonneville High Schools found themselves stuck in American Falls. They were traveling with advisers and students from Idaho State University from a state  leadership  conference in Boise for Family Career Community Leaders of America, or FCCLA.

    The group of students and advisers was heading home and 14 miles west of Pocatello when they were stopped in Power County by Idaho State Police and told to turn around and seek sanctuary at the high school.

    The stranded students were treated to dinner by Subway in American Falls, something for which state vice president public relations FCCLA officer Heidi Hannah was thankful.

    “It was very kind of them to give us free sandwiches, because they didn’t have to,” she said. “I was ready to go home, but I’d rather be here and save.”

    Another student who was thankful for the comforts of the commons area of AFHS was Bonneville High School senior Mikayla Vance, who was celebrating her 18th birthday with cheesecake.

    “There wasn’t room for me and another student on our bus, so I was lucky to get on this bus,” said Vance with a smile. “I’m glad to not be stuck in traffic and lucky to have got on this bus.”

    She also said, wind or no wind, at midnight she was going to go and buy her first lottery ticket.

    The Bingham County Sheriff’s office also advised motorists to stay off Highway 39 between American Falls and Rockford on Saturday afternoon due to low visibility from the blowing dust. One noninjury accident was investigated, according to Bingham County dispatch.

    The National Weather Service at the Pocatello Regional Airport recorded wind gusts in excess of 50 mph from about 4 p.m. until 7 p.m. Saturday.    

    A late March dust storm in 1988 caused a massive pileup that injured 14 people on I-86 in the same area between Pocatello and American Falls. Leaking fuel caused one car and two tractor trailers to burn to the ground in that accident.

    In an unrelated Saturday accident, a 14-year-old boy was killed south of Grace  near the border between Caribou and Franklin counties. A press release from the Caribou County Sheriff said the 4:17 p.m.  crash involved a pickup truck and farm equipment, but the details are still being investigated.

    Authorities were not releasing the teenage boy’s identity as of press time. The boy worked with other family members at a farm in the Grace area.