The Sturgis Rally is here, and there have already been fatal bike accidents in the area. With thousands of bikers taking over the Black Hills, the question of safety becomes important.
While the world’s biggest biker party might be a major tourism draw, it’s also a major uptick in traffic and drunk driving.
The Department of Public Safety reports over a dozen fatalities on South Dakota roads since late July, with at least five of those crashes involving motorcycles.
State Department of Transportation director of operations Craig Smith said it’s a reminder to be vigilant on the roads.
“It’s been a typical Rally going well so far from a traffic management standpoint, other than the increased crashes," Smith said. "The big thing as you’re traveling in the hills during the Rally is slow down, be aware of your surroundings, and what we’ve seen is people being unfamiliar going too fast going into some of those curves.”
Further, Smith said increased motorcycle traffic will be found all over the state through the Rally.
“We’ve seen maybe lower overall crashes, but the severity with these fatalities leading into the Rally has been a concern. We started running some message boards trying to bring some awareness, not only to those on motorcycles but to anyone traveling around the state to be aware there’s going to be more traffic,” Smith said.
That includes in Pennington County, where sheriff Brian Mueller says the local attractions like Badlands National Park and Mount Rushmore drive daytime traffic.
“Whether we’re ready or not, it comes every year, right? It puts a pretty big burden on our roadways, on our businesses that are in Pennington County, but we beefed up a little bit. We added four additional staff this year to help out specifically in Keystone and Hill City,” Mueller said.
The Rally runs through Sunday.