Name Released, Questions Surround Deadly Crash

Sioux Falls police have released the name of the man who died in a high-speed crash at 41st Street and Minnesota Avenue.

Police say 32-year-old Troy Hohn was driving the Chevy Blazer that caused the crash.  He's dead while six others recover from non-life threatening injuries. 

Thursday's crash scene at one of the busiest intersections in Sioux Falls was unbelievable, and for police, so far, mostly unexplainable.

"This one was probably one of the larger, or more vehicles involved, type collisions than certainly we're accustomed to dealing with," Lt. Jerome Miller of Sioux Falls Police said.

Police now say the Chevy Blazer that caused the crash was in the left-turn lane and then suddenly swerved to the far right lane, hitting vehicles stopped for the red light.  Police will now use information from the debris to determine how fast Hohn was going at the time of impact.

"I think anybody can look at the damage on all the vehicles and how many vehicles were involved and how far they went.  It is pretty safe to say that it was an extremely high rate of speed," Miller said.

Investigators checked with neighboring businesses, but have not found any surveillance video of the crash.  They did receive calls of a reckless driver in the area, one coming in to report a speeding Blazer turning onto Minnesota Avenue from 57th Street.  That's a full mile from the crash site.  However that call didn't ring in until moments after the crash. 

"This vehicle had been driving at an extremely high rate of speed for a distance, weaving in and out of traffic.  We did get a couple reports on that," Miller said.

Police spent six hours on the scene, measuring and mapping the area.  They hope to answer many of the unknowns in the coming days or weeks.

"I cannot tell you at this time whether alcohol, drugs or anything else or mental state of the driver was at the time.  That's some of the stuff that's still in the investigation," Miller said.

Because of the magnitude of the crash and its location, the police department called in city engineers to help with the reconstruction work.

Police are also giving credit to those who were in the Durango, which was first hit by Hohn.  Of the five people in the Durango, three were children.  Two of the children were in child safety seats.  Despite the severity of the impact, those young children were treated and released from the hospital.

POLICE DIAGRAM OF CRASH SCENE