A blinding cloud of dust kicked up by a rockslide in southwestern Wyoming played a role in two related crashes that injured four people.

The incident happened at about 3 p.m. Wednesday on I-80 about two miles east of Green River, according to the Wyoming Highway Patrol.

Motorists driving too fast for road conditions at the time contributed to the crashes, the patrol said in a media release.

A portion of a rock formation known locally as “The Palisades” peeled from the bluff and slid toward the westbound lanes of the highway but didn’t reach the road, the patrol said.

The slide did, however, kick up a huge dust cloud.

“Immediately after the rockslide there was near zero visibility on the roadway caused by the dust from the slide,” the release said.

Troopers were at the scene assessing the situation when a westbound Ford Focus, driven by 19-year-old Mandalina Quigley, of Green River, drove into the cloud and rammed the rear of a tractor trailer hauling an oversized load. Quigley’s car spun and came to rest across the middle of the westbound passing lane.

A Ford van, also westbound, pulling a trailer loaded with an airplane happened upon the wreck.

The driver of the van, James Courson, 82, of San Gabriel, Calif., spotted the Focus on the highway and was slowing down when his trailer was rear-ended by a semi-truck.

The semi, driven by Alvin Ferguson, 60, of Salt Lake City, knocked the plane off the trailer, sending it flying over the van. Part of the plane’s landing gear lodged in the driver’s side windshield of the semi-truck.

The semi then crashed into the Focus, crushing the car around the 19-year-old driver and her father, Randy Quigley, a passenger in the car, the state patrol said. The violent crash ripped the engine out of the Focus.

Mandalina and Randy Quigley were taken to Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County in Rock Springs. Alvin Ferguson, the semi driver, and his wife, Helen, a passenger in the semi, were also taken to Memorial.

All four were treated at the hospital and released, the patrol said. Everyone involved in the crashes were wearing seatbelts. Troopers on scene credit seatbelt use with preventing fatalities.

Quigley and Ferguson were cited for driving too fast for existing conditions.

Westbound lanes for the highway were shut down for several hours; the highway re-opened about 7 p.m.

Kieran Nicholson: 303-954-1822 or knicholson@denverpost.com.