March 24, 2026:
A 28 year old man from Rock Valley, Iowa, man was sentenced last week (March 24, 2026) to eight years in prison on drug charges filed in connection with a fatal vehicle-pedestrian accident in September (Sept. 28, 2025) in Hughes County.
The judge suspended five years of Taylor Reece Hanson’s sentence.
The charges stem from the death of 23 year old Elvera Joan Driving Hawk from Kennebec. She was walking along South Dakota Highway 34 approximately 21 miles east of Pierre, when Hanson hit her with his minivan. Driving Hawk was pronounced deceased at the scene.
Oct. 1, 2025:
A 23 year old woman from Kennebec has been identified as the pedestrian that died from injuries sustained in a single vehicle crash Sunday evening (Sept. 28, 2025, at 8:43pm) in Hughes County.
Preliminary crash information from the South Dakota Highway Patrol indicates 27 year old Taylor Reece Hanson from Rock Valley, Iowa, was the driver of a 2014 Chrysler Town & Country traveling westbound on Highway 34 near mile marker 231 in Hughes County, when his vehicle struck a pedestrian. Elvera Joan Driving Hawk was pronounced deceased at the scene. Hanson was not injured.
The South Dakota Highway Patrol is investigating the crash.
The Highway Patrol is an agency of the South Dakota Department of Public Safety.
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