Car-associated incidents escalate

As students returned and settled into campus this fall, the university saw a wide range of vehicle-related incidents, from hit and runs and theft to abandonment of vehicles and towing. 

With traffic continuing to increase in central Sioux Falls and street-level crimes on the rise, more vehicle-related incidents likely await the Augustana community in the near future. 

At around 3 a.m. on Oct. 1, two subjects pulled their car into the rear parking lot of the Svendsbye Apartments. Footage shows the two attempting to open doors of parked vehicles before one of the subjects spots a purse sitting on the seat of a car. 

The subjects smashed the vehicle’s window, stole the purse and drove off. 

Rick Tupper, associate vice president of Campus Safety and logistics, said the purse’s value was probably around $50 while the car window was valued around $500. 

Tupper said Sioux Falls has experienced a larger number of car break-ins and vehicle theft in recent years. He said one car was stolen from campus at the start of the semester and more have been broken into. 

On Sept. 13, a Campus Safety officer found a vehicle with a broken window abandoned on Mortenson Drive, blocking the road. The Sioux Falls Police Department discovered the vehicle had been reported stolen from eastern Sioux Falls earlier that day. 

According to Tupper, the incident was not related to Augustana students or faculty. 

“I think anytime that we have any criminal activity or accidents where it is concerning, you really have to get people to understand and buy into it,” Tupper said. “I can try to do everything we can to protect the campus, but we can’t stop accidents. It’s because somebody’s making a bad decision.” 

From Aug. 26 to Oct. 10, the Daily Campus Safety Log reported a total of 11 traffic collisions, four of which were hit and runs. 

“We probably have seen an increase in hit-and-run accidents,” Tupper said. “Generally, they’re minor as well, but those are parking lot accidents where somebody pulls in a spot and hits the car and doesn’t report it.” 

Tupper said the growing traffic in central Sioux Falls over recent years had led to more accidents in the city. He said Campus Safety officers typically investigate four to five traffic collisions every week on campus. 

“I don’t know that people really realize how many accidents we have on campus every year, and that’s both within parking lots and on the streets,” Tupper said. “Generally, they only get recognition if it’s a major accident with injuries and such.” 

Senior Caden Tegethoff’s Subaru Outback received damage to its mirror after a vehicle hit it on Sept. 16 on the corner of Grange Avenue and 28th Street. While he said the mirror was an easy fix, parking on Grange Avenue comes with the risk of vehicle damage. 

“I didn’t even realize it until the morning,” Tegethoff said. “I got up to go to practice, and I was like, ‘Man, my mirror’s all over the ground right now.’ So I just picked it up and put it back on.”

Fortunately for Tegethoff, the driver of the other vehicle reportedthe incident. 

A state statute requires South Dakotans to report an accident, meaning a hit and run automatically becomes a crime, Tupper said. The police assign a traffic investigator to the case, but the success of that case comes down to what evidence is left behind. 

“They look at the paint transfer on the victim’s vehicle to help narrow down what color the other vehicle is,” Tupper said. “Then what we’ll do is we’ll watch parking lots for those colored vehicles and look for damage that might be connected.” 

According to Tupper, if a hit and run is reported on campus, Campus Safety can check cameras in certain parking lots to gather information. 

Tupper said the Sioux Falls Police Department still responds to an on-campus incident to issue a red tag to the drivers involved, which shows the accident has been reported to the police. 

Freshman Cody Oswald left his dorm on Aug. 30 to retrieve an item from his car parked on Grange Avenue when he saw Campus Safety and the driver of another vehicle near his car. 

“I didn’t even really go up to Campus Safety because I didn’t know if it was my car,” Oswald said. “I grabbed my stuff and Campus Safety came over and just told me that my car got hit and then the police showed up and we kind of just figured it all out from there.” 

A vehicle had swiped the side of Oswald’s car, scratching paint off the front bumper and the panel near the front tire. 

Oswald said he typically parks his car on Grange Avenue and has not worried about the potential for damage to his vehicle. 

“That road is really tight, so I thought that might happen,” Oswald said. “But I don’t know. I wasn’t too concerned. I wasn’t going to really stress about it.” 

Another traffic collision occurred on Sept. 23 at 33rd Street and Prairie Avenue. According to the Daily Campus Safety Log, an officer found a vehicle with its hazards on in the roadway. The car had hit several parked vehicles. 

Officers from the Sioux Falls Police Department arrived on the scene and found the driver to be under the influence, and they took him into custody. 

Tupper said drivers should stay alert and patient while on the road.

“As soon as you get behind the wheel, we really have to get people to focus,” Tupper said. “You’re driving something that can be dangerous to you and people around you.”

To prevent vehicle theft, Tupper encourages drivers to lock their cars, don’t leave their keys out and keep valuable items out of plain sight. 

“As you can see, these guys are just looking in every car. Any car they can look in and find something, they’ll steal it. If there’s nothing, they just move down,” Tupper said. 

As cold temperatures grace South Dakota, Campus Safety typically expects street-level crime to decrease, Tupper said. 

“Bad guys are lazy and they don’t want to get out in the cold weather,” Tupper said.