40 Vehicles Crash in Sandstorm : Chain reactions: Strong winds that reduced visibility contribute to a sequence of pileups in the northern Antelope Valley. No one is critically hurt.

Gusty winds whipped through the Antelope Valley on Sunday afternoon, creating a dense wall of sand that was more than a mile high and led to chain-reaction traffic pileups involving more than 40 vehicles.

At least 14 people were injured, none critically.

Gusts of 55 m.p.h. sent sand flying as high as 5,500 feet, according to a helicopter pilot who observed the storm. Two inches of sand covered parts of the heavily traveled Antelope Valley Freeway near the Kern County line, the California Highway Patrol reported.

Winds were calm in the southern portion of the valley, but motorists were caught off guard by fierce gales that appeared in the north about 3 p.m.

“I went into the wall of dust and there was no way I could have avoided it,” said Trevor Crane, whose car slammed into the back of a pickup truck. “I tried swerving and even that didn’t help.”

In the worst of the crashes, 22 vehicles slammed into each other in three separate pileups that occurred on a half-mile stretch of the Antelope Valley Freeway between avenues A and B north of Lancaster, CHP Officer Ruffel Galura said.

About 15 minutes later, nine vehicles collided on Sierra Highway near Avenue F--two miles south of the first crash.

“Visibility went down to zero and I slammed on the brakes,” said a shaken Crane, 21, an airman who was heading back to Edwards Air Force Base from Lancaster when sand enveloped his Geo on Sierra Highway. “The next thing I know is I saw the rear end of a truck and that’s where it all ended.”

Crane, who is assigned to the Air Weather Service at Edwards but had Sunday off, said he suffered bumps and bruises but was otherwise uninjured. The driver of the truck did not appear to be hurt, authorities said.

Five motorists were taken to Antelope Valley Hospital Medical Center, and one was admitted with a broken hip, hospital nursing supervisor Connie Tell said. A second patient may have suffered broken ribs and a third had a minor head injury, she said.

Nine people--none critically injured--were treated at Lancaster Community Hospital, nursing supervisor Christy Smith said.

Galura said the sandstorm hit as heavy holiday weekend traffic headed south on the Antelope Valley Freeway. Several vehicles involved in the crashes were towing off-road vehicles, he said.

Other wind-related accidents involving at least 10 other vehicles were reported on surface streets in the region, CHP Sgt. Chuck Marek said. Information was not immediately available.

The southbound lanes of the freeway were closed for two hours after the accidents, Galura said. The northbound side of Sierra Highway was also closed for several hours.