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Sturgis Rally Tally 2022: 1 fatal, 4 injury crashes reported Saturday

Law enforcement patrol as part of Sturgis Rally

STURGIS, S.D. (KELO) — Throughout the Sturgis Rally, law enforcement agencies are tracking crashes and crimes. 

The South Dakota Department of Public Safety releases a Sturgis Rally Tally – a 24-hour (6 a.m. to 6 a.m.) recap for crashes, DUI arrests, drug arrests, citations and warnings for both Sturgis and the Rapid City district. 

The first Sturgis Rally Tally is for Saturday, August 6. You can view in the graph below.

Note: Rally Tally numbers from DPS do not include data from the Rally’s official opening day Friday, Aug. 5.

For 2021, there were 60 injury crashes, four that were fatal, 50 non-injury crashes, 122 DUI arrests, 151 misdemeanor drug arrests, 112 felony drug arrests, 1,572 citations and 4,319 warnings. 

Crashes

One fatal crash and four injury crashes were reported on the first day of the rally according to the South Dakota Highway Patrol.

Preliminary information on the fatal crash states that around 11 a.m. Saturday a 2013 Harley-Davidson FLHX motorcycle was westbound on South Dakota Highway 34 when it rear-ended a second westbound 2013 Harley-Davidson FLHX motorcycle that had slowed down.

The 58-year-old male driver of the first motorcycle later died at a Rapid City hospital.

The 68-year-old male driver of the second motorcycle sustained non-life threatening injuries.

Neither driver was wearing a helmet.

Before the rally officially started, a 28-year-old man died in a motorcycle crash near Lead early morning on Sunday, July 31. George Seliger, 28, of Wausau, Wisconsin, was thrown from his motorcycle after failing to negotiate a curve west of Lead of U.S. Highway 14A and losing control. He was not wearing a helmet.

On Thursday, Aug. 4, one person was injured in a motorcycle crash near Rapid City.

Across South Dakota, there were 466 total motorcycle crashes, according to the Department of Public Safety.

There were 671 total drivers in those crashes. Nineteen drivers were killed in those crashes and 384 drivers were injured.

Four counties in the Black Hills area were among those with the most motorcycle crashes in 2021. Pennington County had the most with 109. Lawrence was third with 54. Custer and Mead each had 47. Minnehaha, in eastern South Dakota, had 89 crashes.