COLMAN, South Dakota — Four people were killed and a fifth was left fighting for her life on Monday night, October 26, when a pickup truck travelling the wrong way on Interstate 29 hit a minivan head-on near mile marker 119 in Moody County, about 10 miles north of Colman, the South Dakota Department of Public Safety (DPS) said in preliminary crash information released on Tuesday, October 27.

Source: South Dakota Department of Public Safety via Brookings Register

The crash happened at 8:35 p.m. According to the DPS, an 88-year-old man from Hendricks, Minnesota, was driving a 2020 Ford Ranger northbound inside the southbound lanes of I-29. At the same moment, a 2003 Dodge Grand Caravan travelling southbound began passing a southbound 2017 Peterbilt 389 semi-truck. The Caravan could not avoid the oncoming Ranger, and the two vehicles collided head-on. The semi-truck then struck the Caravan as well, and the Peterbilt jackknifed, the DPS said.

The Caravan was driven by a 15-year-old girl from Flandreau. She died, along with two of her passengers, girls aged 12 and 16, also from Flandreau. A third passenger, a 12-year-old girl from Flandreau, survived with life-threatening injuries and was taken to a hospital in Sioux Falls. The 88-year-old driver of the Ford Ranger also died. Names have not been released because families are still being notified, the DPS said. In line with this newsroom's policy, minor victims are identified only by age and town.

One detail runs through the whole preliminary report: none of the four girls in the Caravan and none in the Ranger were wearing seat belts, and all five were ejected from their vehicles. The 59-year-old semi-truck driver from Arlington, who was wearing his seat belt, was not injured, the DPS said. For the truck drivers who make up a large share of this site's readers on corridors like I-29, the contrast in this single crash is stark and is stated here exactly as the investigators reported it.

Road closed for about six hours, schools respond

Southbound lanes of I-29 were closed for approximately six hours while crews worked at the scene and investigators documented the wreckage, according to the DPS and local reporting. The Moody County Sheriff's Office, the Colman Fire Department, Flandreau Ambulance and the South Dakota Highway Patrol all responded, KELO reported.

Three of the girls who died were students at Flandreau Public Schools. The district moved to a 10 a.m. late start on Tuesday, October 27, so that parents had time to talk with their children first, and counselling staff, members of the local Ministerial Association and other counselling resources were made available at the school, the district said in a message reported by KELO. “This is a difficult time for all involved,” the message said, offering thoughts and prayers to the families, school staff and first responders.

Why this stretch of I-29 matters

Interstate 29 is one of the central north–south freight and travel corridors of the northern Plains, linking Sioux Falls with Fargo and carrying heavy semi-truck traffic alongside local drivers making short trips between small towns like Flandreau, Colman and Brookings. Wrong-way crashes are a small share of highway collisions but are among the most lethal, because two vehicles closing on each other at highway speed leave almost no time or room to escape — in this case, the Caravan was in the act of passing a semi when the wrong-way pickup appeared in its lane.

The DPS stressed that everything released so far is preliminary and that the South Dakota Highway Patrol investigation is ongoing. Investigators have not yet said where or how the Ranger entered the southbound lanes travelling the wrong way, and no findings on a cause have been announced. What happens next is the completion of that investigation and, once family notifications are finished, the formal release of names by the authorities. This report will be updated when the Highway Patrol issues its findings.