Traffic and injury accidents surged higher at 2025 Sturgis Motorcycle Rally
Aug 12, 2025 | 4:46 pm ET
Description
A South Dakota Highway Patrol trooper makes a traffic stop during the 2025 Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. (Courtesy of South Dakota Highway Patrol)
Traffic and injury accidents were up while deaths and arrests were down during the recently concluded Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, according to data from state officials.
The 85th annual event began Aug. 1 and continued through Sunday. The increased traffic followed a trend of higher attendance in round-numbered anniversary years.
The South Dakota Department of Transportation’s automated traffic counters at nine locations in Sturgis logged 537,459 vehicles entering the city during the rally, which was up 11% compared with last year, according to final numbers published Tuesday. It was also an 11% increase over the previous five-year average.
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With the increased traffic came a shift toward greater accident severity. The overall number of traffic accidents reported by the Highway Patrol in the Sturgis and Rapid City areas during the rally was 93, only four more than last year, but the number of injury accidents increased from 35 to 66, while the number of non-injury accidents fell from 54 to 27.
The increased traffic was also accompanied by more tickets and warnings. There were 1,524 citations issued by the Highway Patrol this year, up from 1,455 last year, and 4,959 warnings, up from 4,445.
Meanwhile, drunken driving arrests by troopers fell from 155 to 119, misdemeanor drug arrests dropped from 281 to 266, and felony drug arrests declined from 163 to 104.
Searchlight asked Sturgis Mayor Kevin Forrester why arrests were down while traffic was up.
“I’d like to think it’s people behaving,” he said.
He added that he’s also been told by law enforcement that lesser-attended rallies make it easier for law enforcement to move around and do police work, while the opposite can be true during better-attended rallies.
The number of traffic deaths in the state potentially attributable to this year’s rally is at least six, according to a South Dakota Searchlight analysis, down from 12 last year. Searchlight counts any motorcycle-involved traffic death anywhere in the state, not only during the official dates but also during the days just before and after the rally.
That’s different from the Highway Patrol, which only counts crashes on official rally dates and only in western South Dakota, and therefore typically undercounts rally-related deaths. Using those parameters, the Highway Patrol counted four deaths this year and three last year.
Neither method includes deaths that occur in other states while bikers are traveling to or from the rally, or deaths in nearby states such as Wyoming, where there are rally-themed events that attract bikers to ride back and forth across the state line. This year, the Wyoming Highway Patrol reported three motorcycle-involved crash deaths from the day before the rally’s official start through the rally’s end.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This story has been updated since its original publication with the addition of comments from the mayor of Sturgis.
Recent motorcycle crash deaths in SD
The following six motorcycle-involved traffic deaths occurred in South Dakota during the days leading up to and including the 2025 Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. All information is from the state Department of Public Safety, which includes the Highway Patrol.
- Thursday, July 31: Anthony Michalicki, 70, of Pompano Beach, Florida, died from injuries suffered when the Harley Davidson he was driving just east of Deadwood on U.S. Highway 14A left the road and entered the ditch, separating him from the bike.
- Friday, Aug. 1: Manuel O. Acosta, 71, of Chicago, died from injuries he suffered when his westbound Harley Davidson began wobbling and fell down on Interstate 90 three miles east of Chamberlain, sending it into the ditch and separating him from the bike.
- Saturday, Aug. 2: The 58-year-old male driver of a Harley Davidson (whose name has not yet been released) was traveling in the passing lane of U.S. Highway 16A in the Mount Rushmore area when he was unable to negotiate a curve and the bike tipped onto its side, slid and collided with three other motorcycles, killing the 58-year-old man and injuring the others.
- Sunday, Aug. 3: Sturgis Police attempted to stop a 28-year-old man (whose name has not yet been released) on a Harley Davidson for exhibition driving near the Iron Horse Saloon, but the driver fled, resulting in a pursuit that ended when the motorcycle left the road and entered the ditch at mile marker 52 on U.S. Highway 14A, causing the man’s death the next day from injuries suffered in the crash.
- Monday, Aug. 4: A 60-year-old male driver (whose name has not yet been released) of a Harley Davidson on U.S. Highway 16A near mile marker 43 in the Black Hills slid into two other motorcycles while attempting to navigate a sharp corner, killing the 60-year-old and injuring his female passenger and the two other drivers.
- Thursday, Aug. 7: The driver of a Toyota Tacoma pickup on state Highway 44 east of Rapid City made a left turn without seeing an approaching Honda CBR motorcycle, causing a crash that killed the motorcycle’s 23-year-old male driver (whose name has not yet been released) but did not injure the driver of the pickup.
Pierre, SD
