SD Man Crashes Car While Trying To Calm Dog, Flees

RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) – The South Dakota Highway Patrol says a man who was trying to calm his dog caused a crash when his car hit a pickup and forced it into a deep ditch.

Patrol Trooper Derek Mann says 26-year-old Tyson Andersen of Rapid City was driving north on U.S. 385 Saturday when his dog started acting up.

The trooper says Andersen reached for the animal, crossed the highway’s center line and hit a pickup driven by 50-year-old Robert Kobes of Box Elder.

The Rapid City Journal reports the impact knocked Kobes’ truck into a ditch that was 25 feet deep.

Andersen fled and was later arrested for hit and run, failing to report an accident and driving without insurance.

Mann says neither Andersen nor Kobes was hurt.