ALCESTER, S.D. (AP) – At least two people were killed and six hurt when a car slammed into a group of people and then into a nursing home Monday in southeast South Dakota in an apparent accident, authorities said.
Highway Patrol spokesman Tony Mangan said investigators believe the crash at Alcester Care and Rehab Center was accidental based on descriptions from witnesses, but he had no immediate detail. He said the driver – identified by the city police chief as a woman – was among those taken to a hospital.
Mangan had no immediate information about the conditions of the injured, whom he said were taken to hospitals in Sioux Falls and Hawarden, Iowa, and Sioux City, Iowa. Alcester, a town of about 800 people, is about 40 miles (64 kilometers) south of Sioux Falls.
Jayson Pullman, chief executive of Hawarden Regional Healthcare, said four of the injured were treated at his hospital. He said he believed three had been returned to the nursing home, with the fourth transferred by helicopter to another hospital.
The other hospitals said they could provide no information without patient names. None of the victims of the crash were immediately identified.