Four Killed in I-29 Crash in Moody County, South Dakota, Including Three Flandreau Students

Four people died in a multiple vehicle crash on Interstate 29 in Moody County, South Dakota, on Monday evening, October 26, and three of the four were students at Flandreau Public Schools, local officials said in reports published on Tuesday morning.

The Moody County Sheriff's Office said the crash happened on Interstate 29 in Moody County on October 26. KELO, reporting from Colman, said the sheriff's office, the Colman Fire Department, Flandreau Ambulance and the South Dakota Highway Patrol all responded to the crash on Monday evening. The first local reports described the call as an injury accident. By Tuesday morning, officials confirmed that four people had died.

What officials have confirmed

The confirmed facts on Tuesday morning are short. The crash involved more than one vehicle. It happened on Interstate 29 in Moody County, in eastern South Dakota, on the evening of Monday, October 26. Four people died. Three of them were students at Flandreau Public Schools, the district based in Flandreau, the county seat of Moody County. Brookings Radio, citing the sheriff's office, reported the same death toll and the same response agencies as KELO.

Officials had not released the names of the people who died. The reports did not give ages, grades, a cause, the number of vehicles involved beyond calling it a multiple vehicle accident, or a mile marker or time for the crash. No report said whether anyone else was injured.

A late start at Flandreau Public Schools

Flandreau Public Schools changed its Tuesday schedule because of the deaths. Classes started at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, October 27, a late start the district set so parents would have time to talk with their children about the crash before the school day began, KELO reported.

The district also brought in support for the day. Its counseling staff was on hand, joined by members of the Ministerial Association and other counseling resources, for students, teachers and school staff. Brookings Radio reported that counseling resources would be available at the schools for students, teachers and staff.

The response on the interstate

Four agencies answered the call on Monday evening, according to both local reports: the Moody County Sheriff's Office, the Colman Fire Department, Flandreau Ambulance and the South Dakota Highway Patrol. The KELO report was filed from Colman, a Moody County town on the Interstate 29 corridor.

Neither report said how long the interstate was closed or restricted on Monday night, and neither gave a reopening time or described a detour in place on Tuesday morning.

What is not yet known

The open questions are the basic ones in a fatal crash. Officials have not said what caused the collision, how many vehicles were involved, where exactly on Interstate 29 the crash happened, or at what time it was reported. They have not said whether the fourth person who died had any connection to the school district.

The South Dakota Highway Patrol was among the agencies that responded, and its crash reports are normally released after the first local accounts. Until officials release more, the record is the sheriff's office account carried by two local outlets on Tuesday morning: four dead on Interstate 29, three of them Flandreau students, and a school district that opened late on Tuesday with counselors in the building.

This story will be updated on the original article if officials release names, a cause or other confirmed details.