BY: SETH TUPPER AND JOHN HULT (North Dakota Monitor)
Three people died in motorcycle accidents during the recently concluded Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, according to the official tally of the state Department of Public Safety, but the actual number of motorcycle-involved traffic deaths in the state from the days before, during and after the event is 12.
The department, which includes the Highway Patrol, attributes traffic deaths to the rally only if they occur in a particular area of western South Dakota during the official rally dates, up to the morning of the last day. That number this year was three deaths, down from five last year.
When the scope is expanded to motorcycle-involved crashes in all of South Dakota during not only the rally dates but also the days just before and afterward, this year’s death toll is 12 and last year’s was 11. Neither number includes any rallygoers who may have died in other states while traveling to or from the rally.
In other statistics, this year’s rally included more arrests for drug possession and impaired driving, but fewer crashes and citations.
Law enforcement also seized $71,504 in assets allegedly tied to criminal activity this year – more than 35 times the total from 2023 – and arrested seven men on sex trafficking charges.
Automated traffic counters showed a slight decrease in traffic compared to the previous five-year average.
The rally began Aug. 2 and ended Sunday.
Fatalities, injuries
Among the motorcycle-involved traffic deaths not included in the official tally, five occurred during the three days immediately preceding the rally’s Aug. 2 start, and two occurred the day after the rally’s Aug. 11 end.
Two others were omitted from the tally because one occurred during the rally but on Interstate 90 near Hartford, outside of the area of western South Dakota included in the official count; and the other occurred near Deadwood in western South Dakota on the final Sunday afternoon of the rally, after the Highway Patrol stopped counting rally statistics at 6 a.m. that day.
Ten of the people killed in this year’s crashes were driving Harley-Davidsons, and two were driving other kinds of motorcycles. Two of the deceased people were from South Dakota; others were from Iowa, Tennessee, Wisconsin, Minnesota and North Dakota; two were from Ohio; and the residence of three of the people has not yet been released.
The North Dakota victim was James Luchi, 73, of Watford City. An obituary for Luchi said he had been at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally for his 37th year.
A report from the South Dakota Department of Public Safety said a minivan turned in front of Luchi.
Three of the 12 deceased people were wearing a helmet, seven were not wearing helmets, and helmet usage remains under investigation in the other two accidents.
In addition to fatal accidents, this year’s rally included 35 accidents that caused injuries and 54 that did not. Last year’s totals were 64 and 58, respectively.
Fewer vehicles counted
The state Department of Transportation logs the number of vehicles that enter Sturgis at any of nine traffic counters placed for the duration of the rally.
The final release from the DOT showed 470,987 vehicles hitting the counters Aug. 2-11. That was down 4% compared to the previous five-year average.
Drugs and cash
Misdemeanor drug arrests were up 14% over 2023. Felony drug arrests were up 5%.
Law enforcement wrote 24 fewer citations of all kinds but 149 more warnings than in 2023.
In terms of raw numbers, the biggest change from 2023 came in the amount of seized cash. Officers collected $71,504 through asset forfeiture, a process by which law enforcement can seize money or property suspected of being used in crimes. In 2023, officers seized $2,005.
The 2024 pool of allegedly ill-gotten funds was collected on three different days. Two seizures took place in the Sturgis area; a third was seized near Rapid City.
The Department of Public Safety declined to offer details on the cases linked to the seized money, but civil cases filed in Meade County offer details on two of the situations behind the total.
The first case is tied to the Aug. 4 traffic stop of South Roy, Indiana, resident Robert Alan Ruple, court documents say. Ruple allegedly admitted to having a marijuana vape pen in his backpack. A search of his backpack allegedly yielded two vape cartridges, 6 grams of methamphetamine and a plastic bag with two-hundredths of a gram of fentanyl. The backpack also housed $11,094 in cash.
The other Meade County asset forfeiture case located by South Dakota Searchlight names Peter Christopher Colucci of Pleasantville, New York, as the alleged “owner, possessor or party of interest” for $29,710 in cash collected after a traffic stop conducted by an unnamed agency.
The complaint says a police dog reacted to the smell of drugs during the stop, prompting a search that turned up 2 grams of steroids and a packet with 13 grams of steroid tablets. Officers also allegedly found syringes, ledgers and cash, $2,120 in a brown paper bag and the remainder in a duct-taped safe.
As of Monday afternoon, no asset forfeiture case had yet been filed in Pennington County during the time period covered by the rally.
Sex trafficking sting
As in prior years, federal law enforcement and their local partners were involved in a sex trafficking sting during the rally. Agents with the Internet Crimes Against Children task force posed as underage children in electronic communications with people seeking to pay for sex.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the following seven men were arrested and charged with crimes as listed in the 2024 sting operation:
Brockton Dominquez, 26, Rapid City – Enticement of a Minor Using the Internet.
Eli Poorman, 20, Rapid City – Attempted Commercial Sex Trafficking of a Minor.
Dustin Day, 20, Piedmont – Attempted Commercial Sex Trafficking of a Minor.
Vance Coats, 25, Box Elder – Attempted Enticement of a Minor Using the Internet.
Brandon Bishop, 36, Rapid City – Attempted Enticement of a Minor Using the Internet.
Corey Simon, 36, Rapid City – Attempted Enticement of a Minor Using the Internet.
Aaron Ray Williams Jr., 23, Rapid City – Attempted Enticement of a Minor Using the Internet.
The North Dakota Monitor contributed to this report.
