The Minnesota State Patrol announced that the school bus driver who crashed and injured 14 of 22 people on May 7 near Lengby in eastern Polk County, allegedly fell asleep at the wheel.
The school bus driver, one teacher, and 12 high school students were reportedly injured, but none seriously. The injured included the driver, but all were released from the hospital the same day, reported the Twin Cities Pioneer Press. The students were on a field trip to the Northern Great Plains Youth Institute for a special event for the World Food Prize, which was being held at the University of Minnesota, Crookston.
Before reaching its destination, the bus drove off the highway, U.S. 2, into a ditch in the median at 8:18 a.m. local time. According to the Minnesota State Patrol, the Monday morning crash happened when the “driver lost control of the school bus, entered the center median of the divided highway, and overturned the bus.”
The State Patrol reported that the “driver and [three] students were transported to the Fosston Hospital; [nine] students were transported to Bagley hospital. All are nonlife-threatening injuries.”
Fosston School District officials then sent “a school bus to pick up the noninjured students and transported them to the Bagley School district Grand Rapids School district, then came over and picked up the noninjured students. The school district notified parents of injured. The crash remains under investigation.”
According to news reports, “A duty to drive with due care citation was filed June 7 in court against” the driver.
