YANKTON, S.D. (AP) — Two people were killed and a third person was critically injured Wednesday after a South Dakota police chase at speeds over 100 mph ended when the fleeing vehicle crashed into a semi.
Yankton County Sheriff Preston Crissey said the chase began around 10 a.m. Wednesday when a driver refused to stop after a state trooper tried to halt their vehicle on state highway 50 outside Yankton.
Crissey said the red Chevrolet drove west erratically at high speeds before approaching several vehicles from the sheriff’s department and Yankton police that had set up on the highway near the Yankton city limits.
The fleeing vehicle struck a semitrailer truck and crashed. Two of the people in the vehicle died at the scene and the third person was rushed a hospital with life-threatening injuries. Their names and ages were not immediately released, the Yankton Press & Dakotan reported.
The highway was closed for several hours while authorities cleaned up the wreck.
Yankton Deputy Fire Chief Larry Nickles said it was frustrating trying to divert traffic around the crash because so many people tried to take videos of it on their phones.
“It was very frustrating. There were a lot of people who took out their cameras and started taking videos of the scene. This was nothing that needed to be out there (on social media),” Nickles said.