Driving Into Blowing Dust: Pull Off, and Turn Your Lights Off

If you have been in a collision, or anybody is hurt, call 911. If you are stopped in blowing dust and cannot see, stay in the vehicle with your seatbelt on.

Almost every driving instinct you have about being visible in bad weather is wrong in blowing dust, and the National Weather Service’s own campaign name for the correct behaviour is two words: “Lights Out!”

In fog, in rain, at dusk, the rule is make yourself seen. In a dust storm, once you are stopped off the road, being seen is the danger.

What the National Weather Service says to do

Quoted, because the sequence matters and people remember it in the wrong order:

“pull your vehicle off the pavement as far as possible, stop, turn off lights, set the emergency brake”

And then the step that almost nobody thinks of:

“take your foot off of the brake pedal to be sure the tail lights are not illuminated”

Read that again. A driver who has done everything right — pulled well off, stopped, killed the headlights — can still be sitting there with two red lights glowing because their foot is resting on the brake. That is why the emergency brake is in the instruction: it lets your foot come off the pedal.

NWS adds: “Make sure all of your lights are off when you park off the roadway.”

Why “lights out” instead of “lights on”

The instruction is the Weather Service’s. The reasoning is ours, and it is worth spelling out, because a rule you understand is one you will actually follow at eighty miles an hour with the world gone orange:

A driver still moving inside a dust wall has no horizon, no lane markings and no reference points. The only thing they can see is a light. And a driver with nothing else to steer by will steer toward the light — believing it is a vehicle moving in the lane ahead of them.

So your tail lights do not warn them. They aim them. That is the whole of it, and it is why this one instruction is inverted from every other kind of bad weather.

If you are still driving when it arrives

NWS’s first preference is not to be there at all — “Don’t enter the dust storm area if you can avoid it.” A dust wall is visible from a long way off, and an exit taken early is worth more than any technique.

If you are caught in it and still moving:

Slow to what you can actually see — “proceed at a speed suitable for visibility.”

Lights on and use the horn while you are moving — “turn on lights and sound horn occasionally.” While you are in traffic, visibility helps. The moment you stop, it stops helping.

Use the paint — “Use the painted center line to help guide you.”

And never stop where traffic is — “Never stop on the traveled portion of the roadway.” Stopping in a lane in zero visibility is the mechanism behind the worst outcomes of a dust storm, and it is the thing a frightened driver most wants to do.

The fact that makes all of this easier

NWS says dust storms “usually last only a few minutes.”

That is the single most useful thing on this page for anybody sitting off the shoulder in the dark wondering how long they can stand it. You are waiting out minutes, not hours. The urge to creep forward and get out of it is the urge to re-enter the only genuinely dangerous part of the event.

For scale, NWS notes a dust storm can be “miles long and several thousand feet high” — so driving around it is not usually on the table either. Off the pavement, dark, brake set, seatbelt on, a few minutes.

Afterwards

Call 911 for any collision with injuries, for anybody trapped, and for anybody who is confused or short of breath.

Come to an emergency room after any crash where somebody hit their head, has neck or back pain, has chest or abdominal pain, or simply does not feel right — a collision at speed is worth being checked after even when the car looks survivable and the person feels fine. Our head injury guidance covers what to watch for.

And breathing difficulty is an emergency regardless of what caused it. If somebody cannot get their breath after being out in heavy dust, that is a reason to be seen and not a reason to wait and see how the evening goes.

Our emergency rooms are open every hour of every day and are walk-in, with CT, X-ray and a full laboratory in the building. Go to the nearest one, and if another emergency department is closer to you, that one is the right answer.

If you are unsure, come in — this list is not exhaustive and you are not expected to assess yourself after a crash.

Questions people actually ask

Should I put my hazard lights on? Not once you have stopped off the pavement. The Weather Service’s instruction is that all of your lights are off when you park off the roadway, and hazards are lights.

Is it not safer to keep moving slowly until it clears? The instruction while you are moving is to slow to what you can see and use your lights and horn. The instruction once you can pull clear is to get off the pavement and go dark. What is not on the list is stopping in a lane.

How far off the pavement is far enough? NWS says “as far as possible.” Further than feels necessary, because the traffic you are hiding from cannot see you either.

I am on a bridge or there is nowhere to pull off. Then the moving rules apply — slow to visibility, lights on, horn, follow the paint — until there is somewhere to get clear. Do not stop in the lane.

My chest feels tight after breathing all that dust. Chest tightness and difficulty breathing are reasons to be seen. Nobody expects you to work out whether dust, heat or something else is behind it.

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Off the pavement, stopped, lights off, emergency brake set, foot off the pedal, seatbelt on — and it is usually only a few minutes. For injuries after a crash, both of our emergency rooms are open 24 hours a day, every day of the year. Call 911 for any collision with injuries. Find your nearest emergency room →

Related reading: which door do you need · head injuries and when to go

Sources

30. Dust Storm Safety — National Weather Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. https://www.weather.gov/safety/wind-dust-storm

This article is general information, not a diagnosis. If you are unsure, come in — this list is not exhaustive and you are not expected to assess yourself. If it might be an emergency, treat it as one and call 911.