There were at least three crashes in the area, one of which involved more than two vehicles and one that was cleared before police arrived.

Geelong resident Fay Dunwoodie and her family were travelling to Elmore on Sunday morning for her granddaughter’s fifth birthday when they were involved in a multi-vehicle bingle on the Midland Highway.

Mrs Dunwoodie said they could see the cloud of dust in the distance as they approached and a short time later they were suddenly enveloped in it.

“It was like going into a dark tunnel and switching your lights off,” she said.

While waiting on the side of the road, Mrs Dunwoodie said, they witnessed another crash on the opposite side of the road.

She said the situation was frightening and she was worried someone was going to be killed as a result of the poor driving conditions.

The dust lingered in the air for some time: about 2.15pm, the low visibility and the high winds resulted in a motorcyclist running into the rear of a ute that had slowed down.

The motorcyclist suffered non-life threatening head injuries, bruises and abrasions, and was taken to Bendigo Health.

Bendigo Highway Patrol Leading Senior Constable Todd Deary also attended that crash and said visibility was so poor that he could not see his vehicle, with its lights on, from about 30 metres away.

Leading Senior Constable Todd Deary said he was baffled to witness vehicles overtaking when they could not see what was coming.

“You’ve just got to drive to the conditions and slow down,” he said.

Police were also left shaking their heads at the scene of that crash when one driver exhibited particularly dangerous behaviour.

Leading Senior Constable Darren Scherger from Goornong police said while emergency services were attending to that incident, a motorist sped past to overtake vehicles that had slowed down because of the crash.

That driver, a 37-year-old from Bendigo, was fined $380 for careless driving, having not slowed down to 40km/h for emergency vehicles.