South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg was ‘distracted’ when he hit and killed pedestrian
South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg said he was “distracted” when he slammed into and killed a pedestrian with his car in September.
State Secretary of Public Safety Craig Price divulged this information Monday in explaining the death of 55-year-old Joseph Boever, who was walking on the side of the road and displaying some type of light on the night of Sept. 12 when Ravnsborg veered onto the highway’s shoulder and hit him.
Price did not say what exactly was distracting Ravnsborg, the Associated Press reported.
Ravnsborg called emergency services that night and stayed on the scene, but he thought he’d hit a deer. In the dark, he and police searched the grass but did not see anything.
The next day, Ravnsborg returned, and that’s when he found Boever’s body.
Family members theorize that Boever was walking back toward the site where he had crashed his own truck earlier in the day, AP said.
Authorities released the crash report and a photo of Ravnsborg’s vehicle taken three days after it was processed for evidence, ABC News reported.
Price told reporters at a Monday press conference that Boever was walking on the shoulder, carrying a light, when Ravnsborg hit him with his 2011 Ford Taurus, ABC News said. Price added that the direction Boever was walking – either with or against traffic – and the type of light he was carrying were not clear.
Boever died of internal and external traumatic injuries, ABC News said.
Ravnsborg has several driving violations on his record, ABC News reported, pleading guilty to speeding six times between 2014 and 2018, paying fines of $19 to $79.
Price didn’t say how fast he was going in the 65mph zone, and would not detail the distraction even when a reporter asked. They did say he’d been alone in the car.
Ravnsborg was en route home from a Republican fund-raiser that night, but said he was not drinking. The investigation is still ongoing, and it was not clear what if any charges would be filed.
Boever’s family, at least, would like to see some sort of repercussion.
“I think the attorney general should be charged at the very least with distracted driving,” Boever’s cousin Nick Nemec told AP. “If he was distracted, then you’re getting into the territory of involuntary manslaughter. I think that would be an appropriate charge.”
