BUSHNELL A man from Jefferson was hospitalized following a Nov. 1 crash that sent his vehicle into Deer Creek a few miles northwest of Bushnell.
Jake Gale, 20, suffered a broken vertebra, a broken arm and other minor injuries, according to information from the Brookings County Sheriffs Office. He was initially taken to Brookings Health System by Brookings Ambulance before being transferred to Avera in Sioux Falls.
The crash occurred at 2:32 a.m. on 476th Avenue between 210th and 211th streets, Assistant Sheriff Dave Biteler noted in a Nov. 2 news release.
When the deputy arrived in the area, he found a white Chevy truck upright in the creek bed and a male individual on the creek bank waving him down, Biteler wrote.
He added that it was unclear if there were any passengers in Gales vehicle a 2020 Chevy Silverado K1500 so the sheriffs office deployed a drone to scan the area with a forward-looking infrared camera. The search determined that Gale was the vehicles sole occupant.
The investigation on the scene determined that the vehicle was northbound on 476th Avenue, Biteler wrote. The vehicle failed to negotiate the curve in the road at Deer Creek, entered the ditch and came to rest in the creek bed.
Biteler told the Brookings Register that there was water flowing in the creek at the accident site.
Levels this time of year are running pretty good. There is a constant of about a foot of water running, with maybe double that at the turn in the creek where the vehicle landed, he said. The truck landed on its wheels, never rolling over at all. The water level was just below the bottom of the drivers door.
He also told the Register that firefighters from Aurora checked the vehicle and the surrounding area for fluids, but no spill was detected and, as such, no cleanup was needed.
Contact Mondell Keck at [email protected].
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