Illinois State Police

When Brent Massingill started his career in law enforcement, the training on officer safety during a traffic stop, then as now, focused on the plethora of unknowns that troopers face.

Driver and worker safety, especially in work zones, means more than a week in April, for the Illinois Department of Transportation and Mid-West Truckers Association.

Early spells of warm weather mean that truckers who use rural roads in Illinois had an added challenge.

Winds stirred up a wall of dust from farm fields that engulfed a stretch of busy interstate highway in a matter of minutes. The brown cloud’s intensity caked even the insides of vehicles in dirt.