By Kacie Svoboda
As the numbers and the cyclists roll in, the 75th Annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally is looking to be as big and busy as predicted. With the increased number of attendees, the numbers of accidents and arrests have also increased. As of 6 a.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 4 the South Dakota highway patrol released statistics for the 2015 Rally so far in comparison to the accidents and arrests that had occurred at this time last year.
There were 50 felony drug arrests this year over 35 in 2014. The total DUI arrests as of Tuesday were just one above last year’s 107 arrests. However, the number of accidents has gone up drastically this year with 43 non-injury accidents to last year’s 24, 76 injury accidents this year to 28 in 2014 and eight 2015 fatalities — while last year there was only one at this time.
Two of the accidents occurred in the Hill City area.
On Sunday morning, Aug. 2, there was a three-vehicle accident one-half mile north of Three Forks on Highway 385. A motorcycle driven by Perry Connel, 54, of Canyon Lake, Texas, swerved to miss a big horned sheep. The driver collided with a second motorcycle. A third motorcycle driven by Doug Odegaard, 55, with passenger Judy Odegaard, both of Brookings, then hit the bighorn sheep.
Connel received minor injuries, Doug Odegaard, sustained non-life threatening injuries and Judy Odegaard received minor injuries. The driver and passenger of the second motorcycle were not injured.
On Monday morning, another accident occurred at the intersection of Highways 385 and 16, three miles east of Hill City. Timothy Perkins, 34, of Elkhart, Kan., turned north on his motorcycle, jumped the curb and crashed into the southbound motorcycle of Jeffrey Marshall, 49, of Uniontown, Ohio.
Marshall suffered serious non-life threatening injuries and Perkins was arrested for DUI, Reckless Driving and Vehicular Battery charges. Neither driver was wearing a helmet at the time of the crash.